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AUTHENTIC 



BIOGRAPHY 



OP 



COLONEL RICHARD M- JOHNSON, 



OF KENTUCKY. 









NEW YORK : 

PRINTED BY HENRY MASON, 

76, MAIDEN LANE. 

1833. 






Entered according to act of Congress, in the year one 
thousand eight hundred and thirty-three, by William Em- 
mons, in the Clerk's office of the District Court of the 
Southern District of New York. 



PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 

It is with heartfelt pride and gratificaton that the publisher 
has it in his power to present to the American public the fol- 
lowing authentic outline of the life and actions of Colonel 
Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky. This sketch, faint 
and imperfect as it is, will serve to record some few of the 
meritorious services which have distinguished his career 
and rendered him an object of general admiration and res- 
pect. In him we find combined, in an eminent degree, 
the qualities which distinguish the philanthropist, the 
statesman, and the hero. We see him, while yet in early 
youth, pleading the cause of the poor against the rich, in the 
courts of law, without the least prospect of fee or emolument, 
and thus exposing himself to the ill will of the wealthy an 
influential, as well as to the censures of his brethrern of the 
profession. We see him again at the early age of twenty > 
filling, to the satisfaction of his constituents, a seat in the 
legislative councils of the state ; and soon after, while 
yet under the constitutional age, called, by popular 
acclamation, at a critical period, to represent the state in 
the national councils. In his congressional career of thirty 
years, as a senator and representative, we find him the promi- 
nent, bold, ardent, and unwavering champion of liberal and 
national principles, espousing the cause of humble and 
friendless claimants,— sustaining national honor and inte- 
rests against the efforts of party zeal,-— combatting the 
prejudices of ages, in favor of honest and oppressed debtors, 
stemming by his personal influence and resistless eloquence 



IV PREFACE. 

the combined exertions of misguided religious enthusiasm, 
and strongly discountenancing, at the sacrifice of some per- 
sonal partialities, the dangerous political heresy which 
lately threatened our Union. 

If we follow him to the field, we see him inspiring confi- 
dence among his followers, and carrying terror to the hearts 
of the foe ; freely pouring out his blood in the cause of his 
country, or returning the herald of victory. Now we see 
him, at the age of fifty two, in the full vigor of life, not only 
the favorite of Kentucky, but the boast of Americans, and 
still ready and able, at the call of his country, to do her good 
service in the cabinet or in the field. 

Surely, then, the publisher may, with confidence and pleas- 
ure, present to the public the biography of so illustrious a 
citizen. His fame is already in the keeping of the Ameri- 
can people, and in their hands it will be safe; for they are 
a grateful people, and will ever hold his character and ser- 
vices in grateful remembrance. 



- 



" Let the heart of his country cherish 
His high and well earned fame, 
Till a glory that cannot perish 
Be gathered around his name." 

ASHEL LaNGWORTHY. 

New fork, July 1, 1833. 



BIOGRAPHY 

OP 

COLONEL RICHARD M. JOHNSON, 

OF KENTUCKY. 

Col. Richard Mentor Johnson was born in 
Kentucky in the autumn of the year 1781. He 
was the third son of Col. Robert Johnson, a 
native of Virginia, who had emigrated to Kentucky 
during the revolutionar}?- war, and while it was 
vet a county of that state. Col. Robert Johnson 
partook strongly of that high toned integrity and 
courage which marked the times in which he 
lived, and the race to which he belonged. The 
men of that day seem to have been specially gift- 
ed by Divine Providence with those heroic virtues 
which befit the fathers and founders of a republic. 
To them was assigned the task of erecting in the 
new world, a new political system, under which 
the long forgotten rights of man could take shelter 
and abide. By them was the forest to be felled and 
the earth made to yield its harvests. The new 
settlements were to be protected from the hostility 
of the aborigines, and in support of their rights, 
liberty, and independence, a long, bloody and 
desperate struggle was to be maintained with the 
mother country. Magnanimity, perseverance and 
self-denial were essential to their success; and 
2 



BIOGRAPHY OF 



these qualities they possessed in the highest de- 
gree. Prominent among these men was Col. Ro- 
bert Johnson. His wisdom, integrity, and discre- 
tion secured to him the esteem and confidence of 
his fellow citizens, which they manifested by re- 
peatedly electing him to the general assembly. 
An inflexible adherence to the principles of justice, 
a life of Christian morality and fervant piety, and 
a manner happily combining gravity with gentle- 
ness, gave him a commanding influence in society. 
Kentucky, at the period of Col. Johnson's re- 
moval to it, was called the "Bloody ground? on 
account of the frequent and sanguinary wars waged 
upon the settlers by the natives, in which whole 
neighborhoods were often desolated, the settlers 
being- massacred without discrimination of sex or 
ao-e, and their habitations laid in ashes, and 
the crops destroyed. In these wars Col. Johnson 
took an active part; and such was the confidence 
reposed, by his fellow citizens, in his courage and 
conduct, that he was called to a conspicuous sta- 
tion in every bold and hazardous adventure. His 
country's cause he regarded as his own ; and he 
deemed it his duty, as a citizen, freely to put at 
peril his personal interests, and even his life, in de- 
fence of the commonwealth. This sentiment he 
inculcated upon the minds of his children, with 
earnest solicitude. He early inured them to the 
endurance of hardship and privation. So far, in- 
deed, did he adopt this Spartan mode of education, 
that when his eldest son, Col. James Johnson, was 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 7 

but fifteen years of age, and too feeble to undergo 
the fatigues of the wilderness, he took him to the 
conflict with the savage foe, with a servant to carry 
his rifle, and assist him in difficult passages, that 
he might thus learn from early habit, to endure the 
toils and brave the dangers of war. 

After the termination of hostilities with the In- 
dians, Col. Johnson devoted himself assiduously to 
his favorite employment of agriculture, and to the 
education of his large family; Still he was not 
neglectful of the public interests ; and, to the close 
of his life, with but few and short intervals, he 
continued to discharge various and honorable 
trusts reposed in him by his fellow citizens. He 
was a member of the convention which framed the 
state constitution of Kentucky, upon her admission 
into the union ; and also, of the convention by which 
that constitution was revised. He served, for many 
years, in the state legislature, to the entire satis- 
faction of his constituents. It was his uniform 
rule to refuse offices of every description, except 
such as emanated directly from the people ; and 
their confidence he retained unshaken to the end 
of his life. Though he was of respectable parent- 
age and connexions, he had no inheritance ; but, 
by a long course of industry and enterprise, he 
accumulated an ample fortune, sufficient to rear 
and educate a large number of children, and give 
to each a handsome estate. Such, and so pure, 
disinterested, energetic, useful, and unobtrusive, 
was the life of Col. Robert Johnson. He was one 



8 BIOGRAPHY OF 

of those men who planted civilization, and civil and 
religious liberty in the magnificent valley of the 
Ohio ; who gave an impulse to its agriculture, com- 
merce, and general improvement, which will carry 
it to a height of prosperity and glory, unrivalled 
in the world ; and who have left upon their descend- 
ants the indelible impress of their own exalted cha- 
racter. What nation or state of ancient or modern 
days, can boast of such founders as were the first 
settlers of Kentucky ? They were brave, virtuous, 
and intelligent. They were fierce and daring in 
war, but in all the pursuits of peace, industrious and 
enterprizing ; free from religious superstition, cant, 
and priestcraft ; but pure in their lives, benevolent 
in their dispositions, and rigidly just in all their 
transactions ; of unbounded devotion to liberty, but 
still abhorrent at licentiousness. The sons of 
such sires cannot soon degenerate. Long may 
they continue to present, as they do, to the country 
and to the world, illustrious examples of public 
virtue and private worth. 

Justly apreciating the advantages of knowledge, 
Col. Johnson gave his children the best education 
which the literary institutions of Kentucky, then 
in their infancy, could afford. The means of clas- 
sical education were, at that time, very limited ; 
but he omitted no exertions to impart to them such 
knowledge as would tend to enlighten their under- 
standing and imbue their minds with virtuous and 
honorable sentiments. The success of his endea- 
vors demonstrates the wisdom of his course. 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 9 

Richard was the first of his sons who resolved to 
qualify himself for a learned profession. At the 
age of fifteen, he accordingly left his father's house 
in quest of advantages superior to those which 
were presented in that vicinity, and entered an ex- 
cellent country school, where he acquired a gram- 
matical knowledge of the English language and the 
rudiments of the Latin. From this seminary, he 
went to the Transylvania university, at Lexington, 
where he finished his classical and scientific course. 
While there, his industry was unremitted and his 
progress rapid. 

On leaving the university, he selected the pro- 
fession of the law, for his future pursuit: and 
commenced the study under that celebrated states- 
man and counsellor, Col. George Nicholas, but a 
few weeks before his death. On the decease of 
this gentleman, he placed himself under the direc- 
tion of the Honorable James Brown, now of the 
state of Louisiana, and late a senator in Congress 
from that state, and since, an envoy and minister 
plenipotentiary from the United States to the court 
of France, but who was then a distinguished mem- 
ber of the bar in Kentucky. With this eminent citi- 
zen who has been alike distinguished for eloquence, 
learning, courtesy, and manly feeling, he finished 
his studies preparatory to the practice of the law. 

At the age of nineteen years, under the disad- 
vantages of a hurried education, he entered upon 
the arduous and responsible duties of his profes- 
sion. But if fortune had not favored him with all 
2* 



10 BIOGRAPHY OF 

the advantages which he would have desired, 
during his noviciate, these deficiencies were am- 
ply made up by his characteristic industry and 
perseverance. An acute, discriminating mind fur- 
nished him, intuitively, with many valuable attain- 
ments in his profession, which most others acquire 
only by a long course of laborious investigation. 
The active energies of his mind immediately be- 
gan to develope themselves, and his success sur- 
passed the most sanguine expectations of his friends. 
But the qualities of his heart, which have since so 
much endeared him to the most virtuous portion 
of the community, were soon brought into more 
public notice. Many indigent, but honest citizens, 
were exposed to embarrassment and ruin from 
tedious and expensive litigations with their artful 
and designing neighbors, especially in the clash- 
ing of land claims, an evil incident to most new 
settlements ; and as few are found to plead the 
cause of the poor, a disinterested friend must be to 
them, an invaluable acquisition. Such a friend they 
found in Col. Johnson. His humanity and love 
of justice would not suffer him to remain an idle 
spectator of injustice and oppression. Often he 
espoused the cause of the poor against the rich, 
without the least prospect of recompense; and he 
was never known to withhold his professional aid, 
even in the most intricate and laborious cases, on 
account of the inability of the client to pay the fee. 
By this course he secured to himself, without even 
a seeming ambition to gain it, the just reward of 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 11 

his virtues, the approbation and esteem of his fel- 
low citizens. 

He manifested an early fondness for the study 
of political economy, and of the science of govern- 
ment ; and his reputation for attainments, as well as 
for integrity, brought him, at an early age, upon 
the theatre of public life. The citizens of Scott 
county elected him to represent them in the 
legislature of Kentucky, more than a year before 
he had arrived at the age, designated in the con- 
stitution of that state, as a qualification for that 
office. But such was the confidence reposed in 
him, and such the anxiety of his fellow-citizens to 
secure his services, that all inquiries concerning 
the qualification of age were suppressed, and he 
was elected almost by acclamation. As a member 
of the legislature, he acquitted himself to the en- 
tire satisfaction of his constituents. Having serv- 
ed two years in this station, he was called, by the 
voice of his fellow-citizens, to a seat in the national 
legislature, as a more extensive theatre for the 
exercise of his useful abilities. At the age of 
twenty-four years he was elected a representative 
in the Congress of the United States ; and in Octo- 
ber, 1807, when he had passed the age of twenty- 
five but a few weeks, he took his seat in that body 
a short time after the memorable attack of the 
British frigate, Leopard, upon the frigate Chesa- 
peake. The whole country was thrown into a 
flame by this event ; and party politics became still 
more violent and excited. The politicians of that day 



12 BIOGRAPHY OF 

were divided into two great parties, denominated 
federalists and republicans ; though neither party 
would disclaim the denomination of the other, both 
of right belonging to every real American. To the 
latter of these Col. Johnson attached himself, not 
from a time-serving policy, but a fixed and uniform 
attachment to the principles of democracy, from 
which he never swerved. Naturally of an ardent 
disposition, he often engaged in the excited debates 
which then agitated the national councils ; but be- 
lieving that many of the opposite party were 
governed by high sentiments of patriotism, and 
acted under honest convictions, he always careful- 
ly distinguished the measures which he opposed, 
from the men who were their advocates. In this 
course he obtained the confidence of all parties; and 
even his warmest political opponents universally 
esteemed him as a gentleman of strict integrity and 
honor, both as a politician and a man. Immedi- 
ately upon taking his seat in Congress, he was 
placed upon some of the most important commit- 
tees, to digest and prepare business for the whole 
body ; and in the discharge of this duty his indus- 
try and discrimination soon became conspicuous. 
At the second session of his first term he was made 
chairman of the committee of claims. In this ca- 
pacity an opportunity of more than ordinary inte- 
rest presented itself for proving the liberality of his 
sentiments and the strength of his judgment. 
General Alexander Hamilton, whose services and 
talents will ever fill a conspicious place in Ameri- 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 13 

can history, had been more mindful of the fortunes 
of his country than of his own family ; and by his 
untimely death, his amiable widow, with several 
children, were left with but scanty means of sup- 
port. She was therefore constrained to appear 
before the government as a claimant, and to de- 
mand a partial remuneration for the services of 
her late husband, which he had never received, 
and which, had he lived, he would never have 
required. But General Hamilton had been identi- 
fied with the federal party, which was now in the 
minority ; and justice, as is too often the case, was 
blinded by party zeal. The claim was referred to 
the committee of which Col. Johnson was chair- 
man. He investigated the subject with his usual 
industry and care, and was fully satisfied with the 
justice of the claim. Contrary to the expectations 
of many, he brought into the house an able report, 
favorable to the claimant, which he vindicated 
in one of the most eloquent and argumentative 
speeches ever delivered in that body. Though yet 
but a youth in years, as well as legislation, he fully 
equalled the highest expectations which would 
have been excited from the advantages of age and 
experience. His mind, on this, as on all occasions, 
rose entirely superior to all the prejudice of party, 
and evinced a rigid adherence to justice, which he 
vindicated with a zeal and ability that did honor 
both to his head and heart. Though his la- 
bors were not at that time attended with the success 
which they merited, a subsequent Congress has 



14 BIOGRAPHY OF 

allowed the claim which he then advocated, 
after a debate in which he also had the satisfaction 
to bear a part. 

Congress, by law, had provided, that claims upon 
the government, if not presented within a limited 
time, should be forever barred on account of that 
neglect ; which law, obtained the name of " the 
statute of limitation" ; a statute, which, though 
beneficial in some cases, has operated in many in- 
stances, to deprive the citizen of his just due, and 
the widow and fatherless of their righteous sup- 
port. Col. Johnson was of opinion that this rule, 
however wisely adapted to the liquidation of claims 
by accounting officers, ought not to be applied to 
the principles of legislation. The investigation 
of many claims, which disclosed the necessary cau- 
ses of delay, so fully confirmed him in this sentiment 
that he became weary with advocating a point 
which would not be conceded by the house. He 
was therefore, at his own request, left out of this 
committee, and placed, by the speaker, upon the 
committee of ways and means. In this last com- 
mittee he bore an active part in the whole system 
of finance which was resorted to for the carrying 
on of the war that followed, when the former 
sources of revenue were cut off, and the expenses 
of the government so greatly augmented. 

The course which he uniformly pursued, from 
the commencement of his congressional career, 
was so entirely conformed to the views of his im- 
mediate constituents, and the ability with which he 
acquitted himself, so universally acknowledged, 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 15 

that his popularity continued to increase with his 
experience, till it became altogether unrivalled, not 
only in his own district, but throughout the whole 
state of Kentucky. Nor was his fame confined to 
his own state. Every part of the Union admired 
his talents, and revered his virtues. In every 
question of great national concern, he bore an inte- 
resting part in the debate; and they who differed 
from him in point of policy, always acknowledged 
their conviction of the sincerity of his intentions, 
and the utility of his objects. Though wise and 
good men often differ in views, as to the attainment 
of their desires, yet the grand ultimatum of every 
genuine patriot is one — the liberty and happiness 
of their country; and not one of his political com- 
batants, even in the most violent clashing of parties 
which this country ever witnessed, will deny that 
this was the darling object of Col. Johnson. 

From the time of his first entrance upon the 
national theatre, clouds were gathering around our 
horizon, and sometimes the political hemisphere 
seemed overspread with darkness. But no por- 
tending calamity ever diverted him, for one single 
moment, from that course which he conceived to 
be most consistent with the independence and ho- 
nor of his country. The storm at length came on. 
At the meeting of Congress, in the fall of 181 1, the 
state of our foreign relations was such that, in the 
opinion of many, war with Great Britain was in- 
dispensable. All concurred in the sentiment that 
war was to be deprecated as a great national cala- 



16 BIOGRAPHY OF 

mity ; and that nothing but the preservation of our 
independence, and protection of those rights which 
are its essential attributes, would justify a resort to 
that unhappy alternative. Col. Johnson was among 
those who were convinced that the time had now 
arrived when no other alternative remained. He 
therefore gave his entire support to all the prepa- 
ratory measures, which the approaching crisis re- 
quired ; with this determination, that unless Great 
Britain should recede from the ground which she 
had taken, in her repeated depredations upon our 
commerce, before the close of that session, he 
would give his voice for the last resort of nations, 
an appeal to arms. In June, 1812, war was declar- 
ed by Congress ; and for that declaration Col. 
Johnson gave his vote. 

This new state of things introduced him upon a 
theatre very different from any on which he had 
before acted, and gave a fair occasion for the 
developement of those powers which have been 
viewed with admiration by the world, and which, 
but for this event, might have remained dormant. 
He manifested no ambition to shine in the military 
annals of his country, nor to eclipse the splendor 
which might irradiate the brow of her heroes. But 
having given support to the measures which pro- 
duced the crisis, the same patriotic ardor urged 
him to the field, where he might share, with 
his fellow citizens, the toils and dangers which the 
common cause demanded. His mind, which is 
naturally bold and intrepid, had been accustomed 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 17 

to danger in early childhood. While an infant, 
he was among the number of women and children 
in the fort at Bryan's station, when a furious 
assault was made upon it by five hundred Indians, 
and successfully defended by only thirty, men. 
Dangers like these, which attended him continu- 
ally in youth, had formed his mind to habits of peril, 
that made an impression never to be erased. His 
friends believed him to be possessed of military 
talents, capable of elevating him to a rank among 
the first commanders of the day. But to this dis- 
tinction he never aspired. Being, honored with 
the entire confidence of his fellow citizens, in the 
national legislature, and persuaded that the issue 
of the contest, in a great measure, depended upon the 
firmness and decision of that body, he determined 
not to enter the military service under the general 
government, which would have required him to re- 
linquish his seat in Congress, but to perform such 
sevice as he might be able to render in the common 
cause, in no other capacity than that of a volunteer, 
under the laws of his own state. He had evinced a 
readiness to march to the call of his country, on a 
former occasion. When the Spanish Intendant, in 
1802, closed against the United States the port of 
New Orleans, in violation of the existing treaty, a 
general excitement was produced throughout Ame- 
rica, especially in the western states, and a war 
with Spain was strongly apprehended. On that 
occasion Col. Johnson, then a youth, only in his 
twentieth year, volunteered his services, among 

3 



18 BIOGRAPHY OF 

many others, to pass down the western waters and 
make a descent upon New Orleans, in case of a 
war. In a few days he enrolled a large company, 
and was, by their voice, chosen to the command. 
The settlement of this dispute with Spain sus- 
pended the necessity of the service. 

Very different was the result of the dispute with 
Great Britain. War being openly proclaimed in 
June 1812, the session of Congress, soon after, 
was brought to a close ; when he hastened home, 
where he arrived in July, an anxious spectator 
of passing events, till clouds of darkness began 
to thicken around the north western horizon. 
Gen. Hull, with a considerable force, composed 
principally of Ohio volunteers, had marched to 
Detroit, and thence passed over into Upper Ca- 
nada, and raised the American standard at Sand- 
wich. Suddenly the prospect of success was 
changed for that of disaster and disgrace. The 
army lost confidence in Gen. Hull as their com- 
mander ; and the retrogression of his movements, 
the indecision of his conduct, together with the loss 
of time in availing himself of advantages which had 
presented themselves, began to portend defeat and 
ruin to the whole army. No sooner had these ru- 
mors reached Kentucky, than Col. Johnson 
was roused to arms. In sixty days, duty called 
him to his seat in Congress ; but believing that 
the fate of the army would be determined in a short 
time, he resolved on repairing to the scene of dan- 
ger, with as many of his neighbors as would unite 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 19 

with him in the undertaking, to meet the advancing 
foe. Isaac Shelby, Esq. then Governor of Ken- 
tucky, called a council of war to deliberate upon 
the measures which ought to be taken for the re- 
lief of the army. Col. Johnson attended this coun- 
cil. It was agreed that Gen. Harrison, then Go- 
vernor of Indiana, should take command of the 
Kentucky troops, which should be called out on the 
occasion, by virtue of the brevet rank of Major 
General conferred upon him by the Gov. of Ken- 
tucky. Col. Johnson offered his services to Gen. 
Harrison as a volunteer aid, and asked leave to 
raise a volunteer corps of mounted men, to join 
him as soon as possible. This service was grate- 
fully accepted, and the request granted. Col. 
Johnson immediately made an appeal to the patri- 
otism of his fellow citizens in his own and the ad- 
jacent counties, and in a very short time a large 
battalion joined his standard, consisting of some of 
the most respectable citizens of Kentucky, and, in 
many instances, of veteran warriors, whose age 
and former toils had rendered them incapable of 
enduring the fatigue of long marches on foot. 
This kind of force, for rapid movements, in defend- 
ing- an extensive frontier, was esteemed a most valu- 
able acquisition ; and this kind of service seemed 
to be the favorite of Col. Johnson. 

This Spartan band, for such it was sometimes 
called, was organized into three companies, under 
the command of Col. James Johnson, an elder bro- 
ther of Richard, Major John Arnold, and Capt. 



20 BIOGRAPHY OF 

Charles Ward, men distinguished for their brave- 
ry and experience in Indian warfare, and long 
known as the genuine friends of liberty and their 
country. As the officers were chosen by the men, 
so mutual confidence existed ; and all animated by 
the same spirit of patriotism, they formed one fra- 
ternal, one harmonious, one invincible band of 
heroes. 

On the eighth of September, 1812, they reached 
head quarters at St. Mary's, at which time the north 
western army was at the point of marching to the 
lief of Fort Wayne, then infested with five hun- 
dred Indians. In the mean time the calamity 
which had been feared was realized. Gen. Hull 
had surrendered his army to the British. Machi- 
nac had been given up, and Chicago abandoned by 
our troops. This battalion was now organized, 
and Col. Johnson elected to the command. He 
was always appointed to form a part of the front 
rank of the army, and performed his duty with 
such perfect satisfaction to the whole, as could 
not fail to inspire the highest confidence. The 
service was short, but very arduous, in their 
marches to fort Wayne, Elkhart, and back to St. 
Mary's, where he arrived on the thirtieth Septem- 
ber. Here his force was augmented by a battalion 
of mounted volunteers, under command of Major 
Rossier ; and being organized into a regiment by 
general order, Col. Richard M. Johnson was elect- 
ed to the command, at a time when the whole army 
was under marching orders for Fort Defiance, to 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 21 

the relief of the advance army under Gen. Win- 
chester, which was threatened with an attack, by a 
superior force of British and Indians. In the ap- 
proach of the army to Fort Wayne, which was be- 
sieged by a superior force, Col. Johnson selected a 
party, under command of Major Suggett, a brave 
and distinguished officer, for the purpose of pene- 
trating to the Fort, to advise the garrison of the ad- 
vance of the army to their relief, lest they might be 
induced to surrender. This party met with about 
the same number of the enemy, who had been sent 
to reconnoitre our army. After a severe skirmish, 
Suggett' s party routed the enemy, and killed an In- 
dian chief. This gave great credit to the mounted 
regiment, and so animated the spirits of the whole 
army, that all became ardent for battle. The op- 
portunity, however, did not offer, before the service 
terminated for that season. After a very active 
campaign, for about fifty days, he returned to Ken- 
tucky, for the purpose of proceeding to Washington 
to take his seat in Congress. 

Although not much was done during this cam- 
paign, yet Col. Johnson gained much advantage 
from his improvement on the subject of military 
operations. From the commencement of hostili- 
ties, he, with his brother James, a hero of inestima- 
ble worth to his country, applied all his leisure 
moments to the study of the military art ; and this 
short campaign enlarged their views upon the sub- 
ject, by giving them practical knowledge of the 
police of the camp, the order of march, the forma- 
3* 



22 BIOGRAPHY OF 

tion of the line of battle, and other important mili- 
tary evolutions, which were now become familiar. 
It also furnished fuel to that fire which the love of 
country had kindled in his bosom ; and by increas- 
ing his ardor for the contest, in which he conceiv- 
ed the honor and happiness of his country to be 
involved, it probably contributed, in some measure, 
to the success of the following campaign, which 
terminated so beneficially to his country, and so 
gloriously to himself. 

During the session of Congress which followed, 
1812-13, he matured and reduced to writing, the 
plan of a winter campaign against the Indians, and 
submitted it to the President of the United States 
for consideration. The President referred it to 
Gen. Harrison, a major general in the serviceof the 
United States, and high in the confidence of the 
country, for his opinion thereon. Gen. Harrison 
approved the plan, except as to time, believing that 
the winter would be less favorable to the object 
than a milder season, but recommended that it 
should be undertaken in the summer. In conse- 
quence of this the President determined that the 
plan should be put to the test of experiment the 
following season. Accordingly, Gen. Armstrong, 
then secretary of war, authorized Col. Johnson to 
organize, and hold in readiness, a regiment of one 
thousand mounted volunteers, the officers to be 
commissioned by the Governor of Kentucky after 
the men should be enrolled. On the adjournment 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 23 

of Congress in March, 1813, he hastened home, for 
the accomplishment of his object. 

The little service he had performed had raised 
the highest confidence in his military skill, and 
this, with his general popularity, ensured the most 
complete success to his undertaking. In a few- 
weeks his regiment was filled with citizens of the 
most respectable character, for morality, bravery, 
and fortune. A very considerable proportion were 
professors of the Christian religion ; and while in 
service, except on forced marches, meetings for 
prayer and religious exercises were held in the 
camp, almost every evening, as well as on the 
Sabbath. The officers, as on the former occasion, 
being elected by the men, were persons of the high- 
est merit, enjoying the entire confidence of the re- 
giment. Soon after the regiment was organized, 
with Col. Johnson at its head, and his brother 
James, a gentleman of equal merit, for his lieut. 
colonel, Gov. Shelby, of Kentucky, received intelli- 
gence that Col. Dudley, at the head of a detach- 
ment of the Kentucky militia, under Gen. Green 
Clay, had been defeated opposite Fort Meigs, on 
the Miami of the lakes; that Fort Meigs was be- 
sieged by a large force of British regulars and 
Indians; and that immediate aid was necessary. 
In demanding succors of Governor Shelby, many 
letters spoke of the mounted regiment under Col. 
Johnson, in terms of the highest confidence; and 
the genera] desire appeared to be, that he should 
march forthwith to the relief of Fort Meigs, and the 



24 BIOGRAPHY OF 

defence of the Frontier of Ohio, which was then 
much exposed to the ravages of the Indians. His 
former services on that frontier had given him 
character as a young officer of uncommon enter- 
prize. The Governor of Kentucky, at the request 
of Col. Johnson, permitted him to collect his regi- 
ment, then scattered over a considerable teritory, 
and march to the scene where his suffering coun- 
try called. At his own expense, which was never 
an object with his generous mind, the companies 
and parts of companies were notified to rendezvous 
at two points ; and in ten days the whole regiment, 
in complete readiness, was under marching orders 
for the frontier of Ohio. 

Here commenced that attention to order and 
good conduct, which marked the whole service of 
the corps — here commenced that attention to 
military discipline, which united the regiment as 
one man in the day of battle, when it fought 
and conquered double its number. 

From this moment, its labors were unre- 
mitted ; the usefulness of its services, extensive ; 
and the success of its undertakings, unrivalled. 
It formed a complete bulwark to the frontier 
of Ohio, which had been exposed to the mer- 
ciless havoc of the tomahawk and scalping 
knife. Continually exposed to the toils of forced 
marches ; or, when resting for a moment, engaged 
in skirmishes with the enemy, and making inroads 
upon him, their exercises w r ere so severe that more 
than five hundred horses were lost in the cam- 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 25 

paign ; yet, such was their vigilance in providing 
supplies, that they never suffered any material 
inconvenience on account of the loss. The regi- 
ment soon acquired a name that attracted the admi- 
ration of the country, and induced numbers to 
leave their homes and follow it ; so that, although 
their loss was considerable, in fatigues and skir- 
mishes, yet their number was fully as great, on the 
day of the celebrated battle of the Thames, as the 
day they marched from Kentucky. Lieut. Col. 
James Johnson, whose military talents, intrepidity, 
and decision, would have entitled him to a general 
command, was doubtless of great benefit to his 
brother, in the discipline and order of the regiment, 
and the annals of America will award to him the 
full share of glory which this little band acquired. 
He was constantly engaged in the discipline of the 
regiment; and through their united efforts, together 
with all the officers, it might challenge comparison 
with any corps that was ever organized, for per- 
fection of discipline and order. Nor was their dis- 
cipline that of despotic power on the one side, and 
degrading submission on the other. It was that 
of choice. The officers never forgot that the men 
were their brothers and their equals; nor did 
the men lose the spirit of independence, while they 
yielded a willing obedience to the officers of their 
own choice. In this harmony of concert did they 
move on to victory and glory. The Colonel, al- 
most every day, addressed the men upon the 
righteousness of their cause, the necessity of deter- 



26 BIOGRAPHY OF 

mined valor, and the advantages, both to them- 
selves and country, which would be derived from 
success ; all of which he was well qualified to do, 
in a manner that could not fail to bring into action 
every latent power of the soul. Chicago, the river 
Raisin, and Fort Meigs, witness the utility of 
their movements, in their excursions into the heart 
of the enemy's lines. The splendid victories of 
the American navy were frequent topics of con- 
versation, and often brought to view, by the Col. 
and his brother, as examples worthy of imitation ; 
and by unanimous vote they agreed that when 
ever they should come to battle each one would 
do his best endeavor to bring it to a close in thirty 
minutes, and that they would die like brothers at 
the side of each other, or share the victory. In the 
day of trial their resolution was not forgotten. 

In their march towards Detroit, an express was 
received from Gen. Clay, commanding Fort Meigs, 
so called in honor of the patriotic Governor of 
Ohio, giving information of the approach of a large 
body of the enemy, whom he expected to surround 
the fort before succors could arrive, Col. Johnson 
immediately set out with his'regiment to their relief, 
by forced marches, being about fifty miles distant. 
As they drew near, in expectation of a bloody con- 
flict, the Colonel drew up his men, and in an ani- 
mated harangue, seemed to infuse new vigor into 
their souls. He told them that in a little time they 
would be opposite Fort Meigs, when they should 
probably find the enemy, in superior numbers, 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 27 

occupying the only ground that would answer for 
an encampment; that they must now come to 
the determined resolution of breaking through the 
lines of the enemy, with their inferior force, or to 
die in the attempt ; that no thought of retreat 
must be indulged; and he who was not fully re- 
solved on victory or death, must immediately sepa- 
rate himself from the army. " The tide of fortune," 
said he, "must now be turned in our favor, and 
Kentucky must no longer mourn the fall of her 
gallant sons, but in the arms of victory." To this 
address the regiment, as with one voice, proclaim- 
ed their entire accordance, and reechoed, with three 
cheers, the sentiments of their commander. The 
march was resumed; and having advanced fifty 
miles in one day, they encamped opposite the fort 
the same night, the enemy not having made his 
appearance. 

Col. Johnson, knowing that the efficiency of his 
regiment depended much upon arrangements to 
provide against unforeseen and unavoidable contin- 
gencies, was careful to have active and enterprizing 
officers continually employed in the interior procur- 
ing horses, and receiving such volunteer recruits 
as were disposed to unite their destinies with those 
of his command ; and such was the favorable result 
of this timely precaution, that he carried with him 
into battle a thousand effective men, all well mount- 
ed, though they had lost about five hundred horses, 
during the campaign. 
But we should not omit to notice that at this time, 



28 BIOGRAPHY OF 

while he was leading his Spartan band to victory 
and glory, an extra session of Congress was con- 
vened, to deliberate upon the means, and devise the 
proper measures for successful prosecution of the 
war. As a representative, duty called him to the 
councils of the nation ; but as a citizen in arms, 
resolved to maintain his country's rights, it urged 
him to the field of battle. Many of his friends, and 
all his political opponents, desired him to return 
from the pursuit of the enemy, or resign his seat in 
Congress. He was not insensible to the critical 
situation in which he was thus placed. He saw 
that he was the favorite of the regiment ; and to 
leave his command, at that juncture, would be 
highly injurious. Knowing that the session of 
Congress would be short ; that if he should resign 
he would displease most of his best friends, and 
without a possibility of their electing another repre- 
sentative to take his seat before the close of the ses- 
sion, he resolved, in accordance with the minds of a 
great majority of his constituents, neither to resign 
his seat in Congress, nor to leave his regiment till 
the close of the campaign. To this determination, 
he was influenced from the consideration that our 
arms had been unsuccessful in the north, and that 
more than ordinary exertions were necessary to 
check the triumph of the enemy, to counteract the 
disasters which had been experienced, and to rescue 
from danger the glory of the nation and character 
of its prowess. 
As the crisis of the northwestern army approach- 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 29 

ed, Col. Johnson, with his regiment, having effect- 
ed the object of his march to Fort Meigs, pursued 
his way towards Detroit. Governor Shelby had 
already crossed over into Canada at Portage, with 
a large volunteer force of Kentucky militia, while 
Col. Johnson, with his regiment, continued his 
march upon this side of the line, with the view of 
guarding the country more effectually against 
savage depredations. When within a few miles of 
lake Erie, the joyful news was announced of a 
signal victory gained by Commodore Perry, with 
the squadron under his command, over the whole 
British force on that lake ; by which the way was 
now opened to the invasion of Canada. These 
welcome tidings filled every bosom with rapture. 
A glow of enthusiasm shone upon every counte- 
nance, and the heavens were rent with acclama- 
tions of joy. If this auspicious event opened an 
easy access into Canada, it was no less propitious 
to the military ardor of the whole army. Gen. 
Harrison, the commander in chief, was with Go- 
vernor Shelby ; while Col. Johnson, with his regi- 
ment, alone was upon the American side, perform- 
ing a long and hazardous march, exposed to the 
attacks of Indians in double numbers, that might, 
without difficulty, cross over from Maiden and at- 
tack him by surprize. The manner in which this 
march was performed reflects much credit upon 
his military talents. His regiment consisted of 
eleven hundred men. One company of about one 
hunderd men had been detached to escort provi- 

4 



30 BIOGRAPHY OF 

sions, and was dismounted, and crossed over with 
Gen. Harrison at Portage. He formed out of his 
regiment six companies to act as artillerists and 
march at the head of four charg-insf columns, with 
four six pounders that he had taken with him from 
Fort Meigs. At night he encamped in a hollow 
square, with his field pieces at the four corners, 
placed in such position as to be able to rake all the 
lines. During the whole of the service of this re- 
giment, his camp was always fortified, and when 
in any apprehension of danger, was effectually se- 
cured against surprize. In this order he reached 
Detroit, without suffering an attack, or meeting 
with any occurrences worthy of note. On his 
arrival at Detroit, orders were given him to cross 
the river into Canada in pursuit of Gen. Proctor, 
who was on the retreat. On the first of October 
he crossed over from Detroit; and on the third 
came up to the rear of the enemy. A continued 
skirmish was kept up with them, for two days pre- 
vious to the decisive engagement ; during which 
time he left the body of his regiment under Lieut. 
Col. James Johnson, to be kept in constant order 
for battle ; while he was himself with a recon- 
noitering party harrassing the rear of the enemy, 
and making his movements. The number of 
British regulars, under Gen. Proctor, could not 
then be ascertained, nor the number of Indians 
who acted with them ; but it was evident that the 
American force, under Gen. Harrison and Gover- 
nor Shelby, consisting of part of a regiment of 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 31 

regulars, and principally of Kentucky volunteer 
militia, was greater than that of the enemy. The 
British and Indians however were retreating into 
their own country, where their numbers were con- 
tinually augmenting ; and without the aid of 
mounted men it was impossible to bring them to 
battle. To effect this object Col. Johnson, with 
his reconnoitering party, pressed continually upon 
them, till they were forced to make a stand. From 
a videt whom he made a prisoner at that fortunate 
moment, and whom he accused with being a spy, 
but promised to save on the condition of his giving 
a faithful account of the numbers and position of 
the enemy, he learned that the British regulars, 
between seven and eight hundred in number, were 
drawn up in a line from the river Thames on their 
left to a narrow swamp, impassible except at par- 
ticular points, running parallel with the river at 
a distance of nearly a hundred yards from its 
margin ; that, on the right of the regulars, west 
of this swamp, were lying in ambush about fifteen 
hundred Indians, under the command of that cele 
brated Indian warrior, Gen. Tecumseh. Thus, 
advantageously posted, it appeared evidently the 
design of the enemy, if the mounted regiment 
should attack and force them to retreat, for the In- 
dians to fall upon their rear and cut them off from 
the main army, which was three or four miles back 
Col. Johnson lost no time in communicating to 
Gen. Harrison the information he had thus ob- 
tained. The General, confiding in the valor of 



32 BIOGRAPHY OF 

the mounted regiment to sustain the combat till the 
whole army could be brought up, gave immediate 
orders for the regiment to divide, and at the same 
moment charge the regulars on horseback, and 
the Indians in their own manner of warfare. Never 
was an order more wisely given, or more perfectly 
executed. Satisfied, from the many trials which 
had been made in the training of the regiment to 
this kind of exercise, they would succeed in this 
novel method of charging, and believing that no 
other expedient would be effectual to prevent a re- 
treat before the whole force could be brought to 
bear upon the enemy, and at the same time defeat 
his object of bringing the Indians upon their rear, 
the order for a simultaneous attack, and in the 
manner in which it was executed, reflects immortal 
honor upon the General. 

In obedience to this order, Col. Johnson divided 
his regiment. Finding a point at which he could 
pass the swamp, he with one half moved on to at- 
tack the Indians, leaving his brother, Lieut. Col. 
James Johnson, with the other half, to lead the 
charge against the regulars ; and that both might 
be simultaneous, the sound of a trumpet was to 
announce to the Lieut. Col. the moment when the 
Col. was ready for the conflict. The battalion 
under the Lieut. Col. moved regularly on till with- 
in about ahundred yards distance of Gen. Proctor's 
regulars, where they waited the signal for attack. 
To draw from the enemy their fire, Major Suggett, 
at the head of about a hundred men, dismounted 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 33 

and advanced within about forty yards of the ene- 
my, giving orders that when the trumpet from be- 
yond the swamp should sound, each man should 
deliberately present and fire at the enemy. This 
order was strictly obeyed, and the fire was most 
effectual. It drew from the enemy a hasty fire, 
which proved perfectly harmless. The charge 
was instantaneously made by the mounted battal- 
ion, moving in full speed and with a universal 
shout, which carried consternation and dismay 
through all the ranks of the enemy, breaking 
through his line, and proving a destructive fire 
upon his rear. Gen. Proctor, and a few dragoons, 
made their escape by flight, and all the remainder 
of his army surrendered. This was effected, with 
a force far inferior, without the loss of a single 
man. The charge was led by the intrepid, the 
persevering Lieut. Col. James Johnson, whom no 
dangers could dismay, no obstacles discourage ; 
and the men whom he commanded were worthy 
of such a leader. 

The. task of Col. Richard M. Johnson was still 
more*>|ii^zardous ; for he had Tecumseh for his 
combatant, with a force three times more numerous 
than his own. As he advanced against the In- 
dians, who, according to their custom, were con- 
cealed from view by lying in the grass and bushes, 
and behind trees, he selected twenty men, with 
whom he advanced a few rods in front of the main 
body, to bring on the battle without exposing the 
whole to the first fire of the Indians. While thus 

4* 



9 



4 BIOGRAPHY OF 



advancing, they received the fire of their savage 
enemies, and nineteen of the twenty fell, leaving 
but one man of that number, besides the Colonel, 
to pursue the charge. This shot brought the In- 
dians from their ambush. He immediately order- 
ed his men to dismount and advance to the com- 
bat. The order was promptly obeyed : the Col 
only remained mounted. A dreadful conflict en- 
sued. In the midst of this scene of slaughter, the 
Colonel, still moving forward into the midst of the 
Indians, observed one who was evidently a com- 
mander of no common order. His gallantry was 
unrivalled, and his presence inspired a confidence 
among his followers, equal to what might have 
been expected from an Alexander. He was a 
rallying point for the Indians, and where he stood 
they were impregnable. Col. Johnson did not 
know the man ; but observing his intrepidity, and 
the effect which his example had upon the others, 
and knowing the great superiority of their num- 
bers, he considered it necessary to dispatch him 
in order to secure the victory. The Colonel had 
already received four wounds, and was greatly 
weakened by the loss of blood. His horse also 
had been so wounded as to be unable to move faster 
than a walk. He could not approach the chief in 
a right line, on account of the trunk of a very 
large tree which was lying before him. He there- 
fore rode round the head of the tree, which was at 
his right, and turning his horse directly towards 
the chief, advanced upon him. At the distance of 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 35 

a few yards, the Colonel's horse stumbled, but, 
providentially, did not entirely fall. This gave 
the Indian the first notice of his approach ; who 
instantly leveled his rifle at the Colonel, and gave 
him another wound, the severest which he receiv- 
ed in the battle. He did not however fall, but 
continued his movement towards the Indian till he 
came so near that the Indian was raising a toma- 
hawk to strike him down. The Colonel had a 
pistol in his right hand, charged with a ball and 
three buckshots, which he had held against his 
thigh, so that the Indian had not discovered it. 
This chief was arrayed in the habiliments of war 7 
clad in the richest savage attire, and his face 
painted with alternate circular lines of black and 
red from the eye downward, which increased the 
natural ferocity of his savage countenance, and 
apparently indifferent to every danger which 
awaited him, seemed confident of his victim; and 
as he raised his tomahawk, with a fierce look of 
malicious pleasure, 

" Grinned horribly a ghastly smile." 

At this moment the Colonel raised his pistol, and 
discharging its contents into the breast of the In- 
dian chief, laid him dead upon the spot. The 
Indians near him, filled with consternation on 
seeing their commander fall, raised a horrid yell 
and instantly fled. The Colonel, covered with 
wounds, twenty-five balls having been shot into 
him, his clothes and his horse, was unable any 
longer to act, but was taken from the battle ground 



36 BIOGRAPHY OF 

faint, and almost lifeless. The battle at that point 
was ended, except in pursuing the retreating foe ; 
though in other parts of the line it continued for a 
considerable time, till the main body of the army 
drew so near as to send a reinforcement to the 
left wing of the battalion, when the retreat of the 
Indians became universal. 

This was one of the most glorious victories of 
the war. The battalion under Col. Johnson con- 
sisted of about five hundred men ; the number of 
the savages was not less than fifteen hundred. 
The Indians chose their own manner of fighting ; 
and it was in close contest, each man being stained 
with the blood of his victim by means of their 
nearness. The number of killed and wounded of 
Johnson's battalion was about fifty. That of the 
Indians could not be ascertained, as they are in 
the habit of carrying off as many of their dead as 
possible. Eighty were found lying upon the field, 
besides many others slain in the pursuit, and borne 
away by those who escaped. 

The effects of this victory were also as salutary 
as its achievement was glorious. It put a com- 
plete period to the war upon the northwestern 
frontier, and ended the cruel murders that had been 
so frequently perpetrated in those regions, in 
which female tenderness and helpless infancy had 
been the common victims of savage barbarity. 

No sooner had the battle ended, than it was dis- 
covered by those of the regiment who were viewing 
the scene of horror which the battle ground present- 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 37 

ed, that the Indian whom the Colonel had slain 
was, in all probability, the celebrated Tecumseh ; 
and before the Colonel had so far revived as to be 
able to speak, the tidings ran through the camp, 
that he had killed Tecumseh. This was for some- 
time undisputed ; but whether envy, or honest doubt 
led to a denial of the fact, is neither certain nor im- 
portant, yet it afterwards became a subject of dis- 
pute whether it was Tecumseh that he slew. 
Some of the circumstances which confirm the fact, 
shall here be noted. It is known that Tecumseh 
was killed in this battle, and that the person whom 
Col. Johnson killed was a chief warrior. It is 
also known that but one other chief was killed, in 
any way answering to the description given of this 
person, and that he, a brother-in-law to Tecumseh, 
was killed in another part of the battle. Several 
persons who were in the battle, and who were 
perfectly indifferent to the hand by which he fell, 
have avered to the writer of this, that Tecumseh 
was found dead upon the very spot where Col. 
Johnson killed this chief; and that a medal was 
taken from that body which was known to have 
been presented to Tecumseh by the British Go- 
vernment. Anthony Shane, a celebrated Indian 
warrior, who is partially civilized, is a man of high 
character for honor and integrity, and has been 
the uniform friend of the United States : he was 
at the Thames at the time of battle, and had been 
intimately acquainted with Tecumseh from early 
childhood. The writer of this inquired of Shane, 



38 BIOGRAPHY OF 

what he knew of the death of Tecumseh. He an- 
swered, that immediately after the battle of the 
Thames was ended, he went to the spot where se- 
veral of the men had seen Col. Johnson kill an 
Indian commander, and there he saw Tecumseh 
lie dead upon the ground ; that he examined his 
body, and observed that he must have been killed 
by a person on horseback, for a ball and three 
buckshot were shot into his breast, and the ball 
passed through his body and came out at the lower 
part of his back. While looking at the body, he 
was asked if he was certain it was Tecumseh. 
Shane told them he was certain, for. he had known 
him from childhood, and that if they would ex- 
amine his thigh they would discover a remarkable 
scar occasioned by the misfortune of Tecumseh 
having his thigh broken many years before ; that, 
on examining, they found the scar as he had de- 
scribed. Shane knew this person to be Tecumseh, 
and his body was found where Col. Johnson had 
killed an Indian commander. He was killed by 
a person on horseback ; and Col. Johnson was the 
only person in that part of the battle who fought 
on horseback. He was shot with a ball and three 
buckshot ; and the pistol with which Col. Johnson 
shot the Indian chief was charged with a ball and 
three buckshot. These circumstances establish 
the fact beyond all reasonable doubt, and as con- 
clusively as any historical fact can be established, 
that Col. Johnson, in this chivilrous act, slew Te- 
cumseh, and delivered his country from the most 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 39 

courageous, the most hostile, the most skilful, and 
the most terrific savage foe that America ever had. 
His enmity was like that of Hannibal to the Ro- 
mans, and his arm not less powerful ; but before 
the unconquerable spirit of Johnson he fell, and 
terror fled from the habitations of the frontiers. 

The war in that quarter being now ended, the 
army, after a few days' respite, took up its march 
towards their own homes ; but Col. Johnson, 
whose wounds for a considerable time rendered 
his recovery very doubtful, was unable to continue 
with his regiment. He was brought to Detroit by 
water, where, after nine days' confinement, he found 
himself strengthened to such a degree as to com- 
mence his journey homeward, upon a bed prepared 
for him in a carriage. After a distressing jour- 
ney, in which he endured, with a characteristic 
fortitude almost peculiar to himself, the most ex- 
crutiating sufferings, he reached his own home in 
Kentucky in the early part of November. His 
recovery was very gradual ; but the condition of 
the country being such as demanded the united 
wisdom and energies of all her legislators, and not 
only his immediate constituents, but the most de- 
voted patriots of every part of the union shewing 
a solicitude to see him once more at his post as a 
representative of the heroes who had just been his 
companions in victory and in suffering, he was anx- 
ious to take his seat in Congress before the close 
of the session which commenced about that time. 
Accordingly, about the last of January following, 



40 BIOGRAPHY OF 

before he had yet been able to walk out of his own 
door, he set out for the seat of government, a jour- 
ney of six hundred miles, with none but a faithful 
servant to accompany him. In February, 1814, 
he reached Washington, where he received the 
most cordial salutations of every member of the 
government. His political opponents, deeply sen- 
sible of his sincerity, his patriotism, and his valor, 
cordially united, assigning him the meed of honor. 
The country was still involved in war, 
and there was no prospect of a speedy close of 
hostilities. The treasury was exhausted, and 
armies could neither be raised nor supported with- 
out money. The opposition which existed in the 
public councils against the measures of the go- 
vernment became still more clamorous, and seem- 
ed for a time to increase in strength. The disas- 
ters which had attended our military operations at 
other points, had almost disheartened the defenders 
of the countrj'-, and contributed greatly to the diffi- 
culty of making new enlistments. Our naval 
victories had indeed procured immortal glory to 
that branch of the service ; but, to prosecute the 
war to a successful termination, it was necessary 
that something important should be done upon the 
land ; and every eye was directed to the measures 
which Congress might adopt. At such a crisis, 
nothing could have been more fortunate for the 
country than the victory of the Thames, and the 
appearance again in Congress of Col. Johnson, 
whose conduct and gallantry had so eminently 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 41 

contributed to that happy event, produced a sensa- 
tion of universal delight. The dark cloud which 
then lowered, was viewed by him with calmness. 
To despondency he was a stranger ; and his mind 
in the greatest exigencies which ever presented 
themselves always rose with the occasion, and 
seemed to acquire new strength for the develope- 
ment of its resources. Conscious of the righteous- 
ness of his country's cause, he never for a mo- 
ment doubted that, under the direction of Heaven, 
the contest would ultimately result in the success 
of that side where justice was. In this confidence 
he again entered upon the duties of legislation, 
with a determination to pursue the undeviating 
course, which, in his opinion, would most effectu- 
ally contribute to this desirable end. His volun- 
tary services in the field, and the scars of honor 
which he bore, increased the weight of his counsel; 
and in all the subsequent measures which gave 
energy to the war, he bore an active and an influ- 
ential part. 

In August, 1814, the enemy had made a sudden 
incursion into the country ; and before a sufficient 
force could be collected to repel the invasion, they 
reached the capital, burned the public offices, and 
by forced marches effected their retreat. Congress 
met the following month ; and the occasion was 
seized upon by some who were unfriendly to the 
measures of the government, with others who had 
never been gratified in the location of the seat of 
its capital, to bring forward a proposition for its 

5 



42 BIOGRAPHY OF 

removal. Col. Johnson took an active and decisive 
stand against the proposition. He regarded it as 
not involving the question of elegibility as to its 
location, but whether we should be compelled to 
abandon it by the success of the enemy. Under 
such circumstances, it was impossible for him to 
hesitate as to the course which policy dictated. 
Though prudent in all his movements, he never 
could be persuaded for a moment that prudence, 
under any circumstances, would justify a course 
calculated to increase the exultation of the enemy, 
much less to give them a triumph which they did 
not even claim. The measure was happily de- 
feated. Col. Johnson then brought forward the 
motion to inquire into the causes of the capture of 
Washington, and was appointed chairman of the 
committee to whom the investigation was confided. 
In the discharge of the duty which this business 
involved, he was indefatigable in his labors, and 
successful in his efforts to present the whole sub- 
ject before the American public and the world, 
which was done in an elaborate report drawn up 
by himself, presenting a valuable document for the 
future historian. 

The taking of Washington was the termination 
of success on the part of the enemy. From that 
moment, defeat attended all their movements. 
Col. Johnson had never for a moment doubted the 
ultimate result of an appeal to arms ; and now that 
success was evidently attendant on all our efforts, 
he did not in the least degree relax his exertions to 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 43 

bring the war to a speedy and successful termina- 
tion. Ministers at Ghent in Flanders, were en- 
gaged in negociations for peace ; but no certain 
issue could be predicted, and Col. Johnson acted 
uniformly upon the principle which he had pre- 
scribed to himself as the most safe, never to make 
any calculation but for the most vigorous prosecu- 
tion of the war, till peace should be actually pro- 
claimed. He had brought forward in Congress a 
proposition for the employment of volunteer mili- 
tia, to an indefinite amount, for carrying on the 
war with the greatest possible vigor in the territory 
of the enemy; which, had the war continued, 
would probably have dismembered the British em- 
pire of at least one of its American provinces before 
the close of another campaign ; and at the same' 
time given to the world farther demonstration of 
his military prowess. But while this measure 
was maturing, in February 1815, peace was pro- 
claimed. 

Nothing remained important to be done during 
this session, but to fix the military peace establish- 
ment in providing for the disbanding of the army. 
On this point, a great diversity of opinion existed 
in Congress and in the nation. At the com- 
mencement of the war the nation was without an 
organized army : its conclusion witnessed the 
possession of a highly disciplined and effect- 
ive one. The policy of disbanding the great 
body of this army, which had been raised and 
instructed in the art of war at such great sa- 



44 BIOGRAPHY OF 

crifice, was doubted by many. On the other hand, 
it was urged, that a large army in time of peace was 
not a sure defence against the danger which ano- 
ther war would bring ; that it would presenta strong 
obstacle to the restoration of the national credit, by 
continual pressure upon its pecuniary resources, 
and at the same time prevent the most effectual 
means of protection, by absorbing the funds which 
might otherwise be appropriated to fortifications 
and other permanent measures of defence. Col- 
Johnson was found among those who supported 
the latter proposition, and gave his vote for a re- 
duction of the army to the smallest number propos- 
ed, which was six thousand. The policy which 
he advocated, was to restore public credit by re- 
plenishing the treasury — to encourage patriotic 
sacrifices in future emergencies, by a righteous 
remuneration for the past — to prepare for future 
ruptures by a gradual increase of the navy, by 
fortifications, by procuring ample supplies of im- 
perishable munitions — and to retain no greater 
military force than was necessary to keep these 
munitions in a proper condition for use, and to 
preserve the practical knowledge of military 
science. This policy has at length fully prevailed ; 
and the whole nation seems now convinced of its 
wisdom. 

Having determined the policy which should 
regulate his future legislati veacts, he never devi- 
ated from it. For all these measures, which have 
at length so happily prevailed, he never failed to 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 45 

give his vote ; and to his support their success is 
in no small degree to be ascribed. Nor is it a 
small part of his felicity, that this policy, in many 
respects, was most congenial to the liberality of 
his soul. The war had deprived many families of 
their guardians; and when the return of peace 
brought joy and gladness to the abodes of freedom, 
that joy was damped by the tears of the widow — 
that gladness was interrupted by the orphan's cry. 
But the widow and the orphan found in Col. 
Johnson a substantial friend. If he had braved 
the dangers of the field for their protection ; if he 
had mingled his blood with that of their dying 
husbands and fathers, his generous heart was now 
as ready to mingle its sympathies with them in 
their sorrows ; and that hand which had dealt out 
destruction to their enemies was now employed to 
wipe their tears. 'He took a leading part in all 
those measures which were adopted by congress 
to provide pensions for the widows and children 
of those who had perished in the war, and to make 
remuneration for property sacrificed in the coun- 
try's cause. These measures have done more 
honor to the nation than all the victories which 
were gained — they have effectually rebutted the 
calumny of ingratitude, which has been poured 
upon republics with such a lavish hand. They 
were originated by Col. Johnson ; and by his per- 
severing support, they were carried through. 
Their wisdom was doubted by some, lest they 
should impoverish the nation ; but he regarded 
5* 



46 BIOGRAPHY OF 

them as acts of justice and never doubted that jus- 
tice is the foundation of true wisdom, and the most 
permanent rock of safety on which a nation can 
establish its policy. He always rejoiced in nation- 
al prosperity ; but was never desirous of a splendid 
fabric, cemented by the orphan's groan or the 
widow's tear. He pleaded their cause in the 
national council, with the eloquence of feeling 
— an eloquence which the hearts of the brave 
could not withstand — success attended his efforts, 
and upon his head rests the blessing of the widow 
and the fatherless. 

With equal success he advocated the measure 
which was brought forward to provide for the in- 
digent survivors of the soldiers of the revolution. 
In a speech which he delivered on that occasion, 
he broke out in a strain of eloquence which deep- 
ly affected every heart, and drew the tear of com- 
miseration from many an eye. As he concluded, 
a statesman was heard to say "that speech will cost 
the nation a million of dollars." But the money 
was not lost to the nation. It was applied to the 
payment of a debt of gratitude; and without dimi- 
nishing the nation's wealth, to felicitate the declin- 
ing years of those to whom the nation, under the 
direction of Divine Providence, owes its existence. 

No trait is more prominent in the character of 
Col. Johnson than his untiring industry. He never 
defers^what can be done at the present moment. The 
dull delays which are common to deliberate bodies, 
had become so habitual to Congress, that a pro- 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 47 

tracted session would close, and leave much im- 
portant business unfinished. To remedy this evil 
he conceived the expedient of providing by law 
for compensating members of Congress by an an- 
nual stipend in lieu of the compensation per diem, 
the method which had always before been observ- 
ed. After advising with several others upon the 
subject, he brought forward in the House of Re- 
presentatives, the proportion, which passed both 
Houses of Congress, providing that the annual 
compensation to each Representative and Senator 
should be $1500, without regard to the period of 
each session. This law was passed in December 
1815; and from the general excitement which it 
produced, obtained the name of the celebrated com- 
pensation law. It produced the effect contemplated 
by its mover ; for before the the close of that ses- 
sion, Congress disposed of every subject before 
them, and, for the first time since the formation of 
the government, adjourned without having any 
unfinished business. But the measure was 
not approved by the great mass of the American 
people. This was the first, and the only act of 
Col. Johnson's political life that gave displeasure 
to his constituents. His sole object was the ac- 
complishment of the public business, and the 
effect justified his expectation in this point ; but 
complaint ran through the country, of the prodi- 
gality of Congress in lining their own purses from 
the public treasury. No person who knew the 
liberality of Col. Johnson, suspected for a moment 



48 BIOGRAPHY OF 

that parsimonious motives actuated him ; but he 
was the father of the measure, and it was unpopu- 
lar. The excitement, though in a great degree 
artificial, was strong and general. On this occa- 
sion, the fairest opporturity that had ever occurred 
presented itself to effect his political overthrow. 
A cloud for a moment gathered over him, and 
threatened his defeat. At the ensuing election, a 
candidate was brought forward to oppose him 
whose talents were highly respectable, and to 
whose political principles no exception could be 
taken. Many, who had on all former occasions 
given him their cordial support, now for the mo- 
ment forsook him. He met the question with his 
usual firmness, and openly discussed it with his 
opponent at every election poll in his district. On 
one of these occasions, finding himself in the midst of 
those who disapproved the measure, though most of 
them had been his companions in danger, and 
were reluctant to abandon him, he exclaimed, 
while addressing them, " Admitting this measure 
to be as injurious as some represent it ; if you 
owned a rifle which had never missed fire — if 
with it, you had shot a hundred deer and twenty 
of your country's enemies — but on one unfortu- 
nate occasion it should miss fire would you throw it 
away? or would you pick the flint and try it again?" 
" Stop there ; " interrupted a veteran warrior, " stop 
there — Do you admit it to be a snap ?" "A snap, 1 ' 
answered the Colonel. " Then," replied he, 
amid the shouts k of the people, — " then we will 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 49 

pick the flint and try the old rifle again. 1 ' Here 
the Colonel ceased, and the company in a body 
moved onward to the poll and gave him their vote. 
He was re-elected by a majority of nearly a thou- 
sand votes over his opponent. This w r as one of 
the most honorable triumphs of his life. But few 
who voted for the law were re-elected, and in no 
state did the excitement run higher than in Ken- 
tucky. Col. Johnson had been the mover of the 
law r , and yet such was their affection for him, such 
their confidence in his principles and talents, that 
the great body of the people would not — could not 
forsake him. Nor did he disappoint that confi- 
dence. At the next session of Congress he 
brought forward the motion for its repeal ; alleging 
as his reason, that the people whom he served 
were not favorable to its operation, and to their 
sovereign will he had ever deemed it his duty, as 
their representative, to bow. The law was repeal- 
ed, the excitement had subsided, and he was, if 
possible, more than reinstated in their confidence 
and affections. 

His re-election to Congress seems to have been 
a providential interference, for the political salva- 
tion of one of the greatest men of the age. Gen. 
Andrew Jackson, who had, with the undisciplined 
volunteers of the west, achieved the most brilliant 
victories in the war, both among the savages and 
over the veterans of Lord Wellington, had been 
subsequently employed to protect the defenceless 
frontier of the south against the Seminole Indians, 
a large and warlike tribe, lying upon the borders 






50 BIOGRAPHY OF 

of Georgia and Florida. He had completely de- 
featedthem, by pursuing them even into Pensacola, 
the capital of Florida, where they had fled for 
promised protection from the Spanish Governor, 
and had executed two British emissaries, who 
were proved to have been the prime instigators of 
the savages to the many cruel murders which they 
had committed. The conduct of Gen. Jackson in 
this campaign, was made a subject of Congres- 
sional inquiry, and Col. Johnson was the chairman 
of the committee to whom it was referred. It was 
generally conceded that Gen. Jackson's operations 
were of the most salutary effect, and that no 
other cause could have proved permanently 
beneficial. The Indians had but an artificial line to 
cross to enter the Spanish territory, where pro- 
tection was afforded them; and without invading 
that territory, nothing effectual could be done. 
But its legality was questioned by some. The 
instigators of the savages were not American citi- 
zens, and the legal right to punish them was also 
denied by many. The committee, after an invest- 
igation of the documents in this case, determined, 
by a majority of their number, to report against 
Gen. Jackson. In this decision Col. Johnson did 
not concur, and refused to draw up, or present 
their report. While another member of the com- 
mittee was doing this, Co). Johnson prepared a 
counter report, giving a luminous view of the 
whole subject, and shewing facts, which led to 
the irresistible conclusion, that Gen. Jackson's con- 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 51 

duct was not worthy of censure. This document 
is unquestionably among- the ablest state papers 
which the archives of the nation can boast. When 
the report of the committee was presented to the 
house of representatives, this counter report was 
presented by Col. Johnson, who moved that it 
should be received as a substitute for that of the 
majority of the committee. The ability with which 
it was drawn, the perspicuous light in which the 
subject was exhibited, and the conclusion to which 
it so naturally conducted the mind, were obvious 
to the great majority of the house. A discussion 
ensued, which brought forth the ablest talents of 
the nation. Mr. Clay, then the presiding officer 
of the house, and whose eloquence was unrivalled, 
took the lead in opposition to Gen. Jackson, and 
Col. Johnson took the lead in his support. The 
eloquence of Clay was more than counterbalanced 
by the strength of argument, and pathetic appeal 
to the heart by Col. Johnson. The counter report 
was sustained by the house, and by a consider- 
able majority adapted as a substitute for that 
which the committee had reported. This was 
among the happiest acts of Col. Johnson's life. 
By his laborious research and persevering at- 
tention, the subject was so presented as to shew 
to the house the true character of the Gene- 
ral's measures ; and to this act, under the provi- 
dence of Heaven, the nation is indebted for the 
preservation of that great man's reputation from a 
shade which might forever have obscured his 
virtues and his fame. 



52 BIOGRAPHY OF 

During this session Col. Johnson, wearied 
with the turmoils of public life, resolved upon re- 
tirement. He saw his country prosperous and 
happy; her character respected abroad, and the 
great principles of liberty and independence 
established upon a basis which promised perpe- 
tuity. His labors had been unremitted, and his 
course singulary successful. But he had never 
changed. The same sentiments which had actuated 
him in his entrance upon public life, he was now 
about to carry with him into retirement. 

Congress had publicly acknowledged his services 
in the field, and by a joint resolution of both 
houses, presented him a sword. He had serv- 
ed his constituents for twelve successive years 
as their representative in Congress, and voluntarily 
retired in 1819, honored by the whole nation, and 
happy in the best wishes of those who had so long 
sustained him. 

But his own native state, of which he had be- 
come almost the idol, would not suffer him to 
enjoy the retirement which he sought. He was 
immediately selected to represent the county in 
which he resided in the legislature of the state, and 
he could not resist their call. He had but just 
taken his seat in the legislature, when that body 
elected him to the senate of the United States. 
Thisjwas in December, 1819, and though retire- 
ment was his object in withdrawing from the 
house of representatives, this renewed expression 
of the wishes of his fellow-citizens was not to be 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 53 

resisted. He accordingly repaired to the seat of 
the general government, and took his seat before 
the close of that month; and having been subse- 
quently unanimously re-elected, there remains a 
demonstration of their continued confidence. 

Col. Johnson has ever considered all men by 
nature equal ; and that in forming rules for the 
government of society, each member of that society 
is entitled to an equal voice. In the representa- 
tive system, which grows out of necessity in 
a populous community, this principle can only 
be preserved by an immediate responsibility, which 
will check the disposition, so common in man, to 
exercise despotically that power which he only 
holds in trust. The obligation of the representa- 
tive to obey the will of his constituents is there- 
fore a settled principle with him, and ought to 
be regarded as a political axiom by every repub- 
lican. The independent sovereignity of the in- 
dividual states he has regarded as the safest re- 
pository of the people's rights, and has ever viewed 
with a jealous eye any act of the general govern- 
ment which threatened to invade that sovereignty, 
beyond the exercise of powers expressly delegated 
by the states. The federal judiciary, which is a 
body independent of the states and of the people, 
had assumed a prerogative highly dangerous to 
the sovereignty of the states, that of declaring their 
laws unconstitutional, and therefore of no force. 
He was of the opinion that this authority had 
never been delegated by the federal compact, and 

6 



54 BIOGRAPHY OF 

safety required that it should be arrested. H» 
therefore brought forward in the senate a proposi- 
tion so to amend the constitution of the United 
States, as that the federal judiciary should be de- 
clared to have no power to declare that state laws 
were unconstitutional, without an appeal to the 
United States Senate, where the sovereignty of 
each state is equally represented, and where such 
questions might therefore be safely settled. This 
principle he defended in one of the ablest speeches 
that he ever delivered ; and which, for clearness 
and soundness of argument, has seldom been equal- 
led by any of our statesmen. An unwillingness 
however to touch the judiciary, which, from the 
prejudice derived from our British ancestors, we 
are taught so highly to venerate, prevented the 
proposition from suceeding. 

His next great effort was directed to a subject, 
on which humanity and justice are most potent 
advocates ; the subject of imprisonment for debt. 
In contemplating the legal establishment of the 
country, in which his mind always reverts to pri- 
mitive principles, from which their present design 
and utility are naturally brought to view, the in- 
quiry naturally arose, why are prisons erected ? 
Man is fond of liberty, and nature designed him 
to be free. Why then should he be deprived of its 
enjoyment? If the safety of society requires his 
confinement, prisons should be built ; but no man 
can be justly imprisoned, unless his freedom is 
dangerous to society. If the lion or the tiger is 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 55 

exhibited to man, a cage is necessary to secure 
man from his ferocity. If a man is a murderer or 
a thief, the safety of society will justify his con- 
finement. But is this the only use to which pri- 
sons are appropriated 1 No : they are the habita- 
tions of the innocent victims of misfortune. Men 
who may enjoy society with safety are found to con- 
stitute the most numerous class of the inhabitants 
of prisons. The philanthropy of Howard is cele- 
brated and admired by all the world ; and his no- 
blest acts consist in his visiting prisons ; not to en- 
courage crime, by diminishing its punishments, 
but by extenuating the miseries of the unfortunate. 
If these were the proper objects of commisseration, 
and their relief justly excited the admiration of a 
nation, why should a nation sanction the system 
which rendered that commisseration necessary? 
Let the prison doors be unbarred, and they are re- 
lieved by their own efforts. May not the legisla- 
ture of the nation, then, by one act, do more than 
many Howards % Thoughts like these so power- 
fully operated upon the mind of Col. Johnson, 
that he boldly ventured to encounter the long es- 
tablished prejudice of the world, by proposing the 
entire abolition of imprisonment for debt. The 
proposition, at first, found but few advocates. It 
was novel. The prejudice of ages was against it. 
The despotic feelings of the wealthy were against 
it. Every creditor, desiring authority over his 
debtor, was opposed to it ; and the cry of the needy, 
who by long oppression was almost taught to 



56 BIOGRAPHY OF 

believe that oppression was righteous, seemed too 
feeble to be heard. But for Col. Johnson, it was 
always sufficient to know that misery existed ; and 
without waiting for the supplicating cry of the 
wretched to penetrate his ear, he was ready to 
raise his voice and his hand to remove it. A deputa- 
tion of Indians, visiting the interior of the states, 
was led by direction of the government through 
some of our populous cities, with the hope that, 
seeing the effects of civilization, they might learn 
its advantages, and induce their tribes to make it 
their choice. When looking into a prison, and 
inquiring the cause of the confinement of the dif- 
ferent prisoners, they were informed that the per- 
sons in one apartment were there for debt. An 
aged chief shrunk back with indications of horror, 
exclaiming, " There is no beaver there." He left 
the place with disgust, denouncing the habits of 
the white men, because they shut one another up 
in prison for debt, where they could neither pro- 
vide for themselves nor pay their creditors. A 
custom which untaught savages must reprobate 
because it inflicts misery without benefiting socie- 
ty, and renders the unfortunate more unfortunate 
without a solitary benefit to any, could not remain 
unheeded by Col. Johnson, whatever opposition 
his generous efforts might have to endure. He 
defended his proposition in a speech of considera- 
ble length; which, for strength of argument, depth 
of research, and perspicuity of thought, enforced by 
the most powerful appeal to the noblest sensibili- 



COLONEL JOHNSON, 57 

ties of the heart, is seldom equaled. He com- 
manded universal attention, and, before the close 
of the session, had the felicity to find that many 
were enlisted with him in the same cause. His 
speech was published through all parts of the 
country, and produced an excitement in favor of 
the measure, which the whole nation felt. He 
received letters from every section of the union > 
approbating- his course and soliciting him to per- 
severe. He entertained no hope of effecting its 
passage in one year. Ancient and deep rooted 
prejudices were to be eradicated, and much sel- 
fishness subdued. His success however exceeded 
his anticipation, and encouraged him to renew the 
proposition at the next session. He had pondered 
the subject well, and in another speech, not infe- 
rior to his first, he again brought to view the cause 
of righteousness and humanity, and exposed the 
principles of liberty in a manner that did equal 
honor to his head and heart. In the second 
attempt, he found more support than in the former. 
Some of the best statesmen and most eloquent ora- 
tors in the nation united with him in support of 
the measure. Though yet unsuccessful, it pro- 
duced a salutary effect upon the victims of 
misfortune. Imprisonments for debt became more 
seldom in the different parts of the country, and the 
prison bounds were extended to whole counties. 
The current of public opinion is evidently chang- 
ing, and no doubt remains that he will be ultimate- 
ly successful. The measure requires a change 

6 # 



58 BIOGRAPHY OF 

which time only can produce : and he still mani- 
fests the determination never to suffer the subject 
to rest, till prisons shall be used for none but cul- 
prits. 

Col. Johnson, having been engaged in the war 
against the Indians, was led to a deep consideration 
of their character and condition. He has ever 
regarded them as the deluded instruments of their 
civilized allies; and though compelled in his coun- 
try's defence to draw the sword, his heart melted 
with pity while he punished their cruelties. As 
soon as the war had ended, his mind was employ- 
ed in devising the most effectual method of civi- 
lizing and reforming them. He took the lead in 
a society which was formed for their benefit, and 
caused a school to be established near his own 
home for the instruction of their youth. The pre- 
vailing sentiment had been, that the plan of esta- 
blishing schools in their own country would be 
most likely to effect the object: but, on this point, 
Col. Johnson entertained strong doubts. Believ- 
ing that, from the depravity of human nature, there 
is a stronger propensity in man to turn from the 
civilized to the savage, than from the savage to the 
civilized state, and having witnessed some awful 
examples of the fact, he entertained the opinion 
that, to produce the desired change, it would be 
necessary to bring their youth into the midst of 
civilized society, where example and habit would 
enforce the precepts which should be given them. 
Therefore, while he gave full support to one esta- 



COLONEL JOHNSON. 59 

blishment among them, he was anxious also that 
trial should be made of, at least, one among 
the whites. The first attempt failed for want 
of proper aid. But his effort had given him 
the confidence of the Indians, and borne full con- 
viction to their minds that he was their friend. 
In a treaty subsequently entered into with the 
Choctaws, provision was made for the annual 
expenditure of a considerable sum of money under 
the direction of government, for the education of 
their youth. After the ratification of the treaty, 
the Indians signified to the agent a desire to send 
their young men among the whites to be instruct- 
ed, provided they might be placed under the 
guardianship of Col. Johnson, whom they selected, 
without his knowledge, as the friend of the Indians. 
The government acceded to their wishes ; and 
Col. Johnson, in compliance with their solicitation, 
permitted the establishment to be located on his 
own farm. This establishment is called the Choc- 
taw Academy. It is under the direction of a 
clergyman recommended by Col. Johnson, and 
appointed by the government. The Choctaws at 
first sent but a small number of their youth; but 
learning on trial the advantages of their situation, 
they have increased the number to nearly a hun- 
dred ; and other Indian nations are now anxious 
to place their youth at the same school. It was 
the name of Col. Johnson which drew them there, 
and they all regard him as their benefactor. 

If the faithful and disinterested discharge of 



60 BIOGRAPHY OF COL. JOHNSON. 

every trust committed to a man, returns a recom- 
pense of reward into the bosom of the philanthro- 
pist — if the alleviation of misery and the augment- 
ation of happiness, in others, is a rich luxury to the 
generous mind, Col. Johnson, while loved by his 
friends, revered by his country, honored by the 
world, enjoys in his own heart the highest attain- 
ment of sublunary bliss. 



APPENDIX. 



A SKETCH OF THE 

SPEECH OF MR. ELY MOORE, 

At the great Meeting at Masonic Hall, on the 
loth March last, which recommended Col. Rich- 
ard M. Johnson, as a candidate for the Vice 
Presidency. 

There is something cheering and peculiarly 
gratyfying in witnessing such a unanimous, ardent, 
and honest expression of sentiment in behalf of use- 
ful talent and exalted worth as is manifested on 
this occasson. It affords a strong and consolitary 
evidence that we are not unmindful thai " closely 
allied to love of country is gratitude to its bene- 
factors." And, gentlemen, it does appear to me that if 
there is one man more emphatically entitled to the 
gratitude of this nation, and one having stronger 
claims upon its suffrages than another, that man 
is Col. R. M. Johnson, of Kentucky. In express- 
ing this opinion, I would not be understood as 
wishing to detract from the merits or preten- 
sions of either of the respective candidates for the 
Vice Presidency — far from it. I am willing to 
admit that each of them has " done the state some 



62 APPENDIX. 

service." I am willing to admit they are honora- 
ble men — all honorable men! But when their 
pretensions are compared with those of the veteran 
statesman of the west, every candid man must 
admit they are altogether inferior — that they are 
"as dust in the balance." 

No doubt we shall be assailed by those whose 
interest it may be to farther the views of other 
candidates. They, probably, will impugn our mo- 
tives and misrepresent our principles, because w T e 
are unwilling to sacrifice at the shrine of party 
what we conceive to be the interest of our country. 
Be it so. We conceive it to be our duty, we 
know it to be our right as free citizens, to meet in 
public for the purpose of recommending to office 
such of our fellow citizens as we may think best 
qualified to serve the country. It was such an 
expression of public opinion that first called Gen. 
Washington to preside over the destinies of the 
Republic ; and it was such an expression of public 
opinion that called the present Chief Magistrate to 
the presidential chair. And if similar means fail 
to elevate Col. Johnson to the Vice Presidency, it 
will be, either because the spirit of genuine demo- 
cracy shallhave departed from among us, or that a 
fatal lethargy shall cramp and stifle its influence. 

Notwithstanding every individual within the 
sound of my voice maybe familiar with the history 
of Col. Johnson, yet I will take the liberty of dwell- 
ing for a few moments upon some of the most pro* 



APPENDIX. 63 

minent events of his life. Accompany me, then 
(in imagination), to the banks of the Thames, in 
Canada, where Col. Johnson first signalized him- 
self as an officer and a soldier. # # # 

Seldom, indeed, do the occurrences of real life 
furnish a more interesting, a more animating and 
spirit stirring picture — one in which is so strongly 
marked the character of patriotism and of high 
souled chivalry, as was displayed in the character 
and conduct of Col. Johnson in that memorable 
battle. In that hour of peril, when the savage foe, 
led on by the brave and desperate Tecumseh, were 
pushing their way to victory, behold him rallying 
his little band of mounted riflemen — animating 
them with his own determined spirit — breathing 
into them the soul of heroism, and at their head 
dashing amidst the thickest of the battle. Behold 
him, when unhorsed, covered with wounds and 
bleeding at every pore, vigorously renew the fight ; 
with his own determined arm roll back the tide 
of battle, and decide the fate of that well fought 
day, by despatching him who was the life and soul, 
the heart and head, of the Indian phalanx, and of 
Indian chivalry. Behold him, and his noble bro- 
ther, with his two youthful but gallant sons, stand- 
ing foot to foot, and hilt to hilt, with the ruthless 
foe — battling side by side, and dealing stroke for 
stroke, in their country's defence, and for their 
country's honor! There they stood, brothers, sire 
and sons, firm as the deep rooted oak of their own 
mountain land ; forming on the one hand, a rally- 



64 APPENDIX. 

ing point to the American soldier, and on the other 
an impenetrable rampart to the enemy. There 
they stood ! shoulder to shoulder, staunch as did 
ever Spartan at the Pass, or Lacedemonian on 
" Old Platea's day." When reeling, and well 
nigh falling from loss of blood, yet did he face his 
foes — brandish his mangled arm in their very 
teeth, and cheer his brave Kentuckians, ever and 
anon, with the animating cry of " onwai' d-o?iward 

-ONWARD !" 

######## 

Col. Johnson has not only proved himself a 
heroic soldier, but a profound and honest statesman. 
He has not only won the blood stained laurel, but 
the civic wreath. He not only merits our esteem 
and admiration for breasting the battle storm — for 
risking his life in the deadly breach ; but, also, for 
the firm, patriotic, and undeviating course that has 
marked his political life; and especially is he en- 
titled to our love and gratitude, and to the love and 
gratitude of all good men, — of all who love their 
country, — for his able, patriotic and luminous re- 
port on the Sunday mail question. # # # 
I will hazard the declaration, that Col. Johnson 
has done more for liberal principles, for freedom of 
opinion, and for pure and unadulterated democracy, 
than any man in our country — by arresting the 
schemes of an ambitious, irreligious priesthood. 
Charge him not with hostility to the principles of 
religion, because he opposed the wishes and 
thwarted the designs of the clergy — rather say 



APPENDIX. 65 

that he has proved himself the friend of fur e reli- 
gion, by guarding it against a contaminating alli- 
ance with politics. His strong and discriminating 
mind detected and weighed the consequences that 
would result from such a measure. He sifted the 
projectors of this insiduous and dangerous scheme, 
and resolved to meet them full in the face, and by 
means of reason and argument to convince the 
honest and silence the designing. The honest he 
did convince — the designing he did defeat, though, 
strange to tell, did not silence : — their obstinacy can 
only be equalled by their depravity. Their per- 
severance, however, can accomplish nothing, so 
long as the people prize their liberties, and can 
have access to the constitution and Johnson's Re- 
ports. * I would not be under- 
stood to say that a majority of the people do not 
properly estimate the importance of those docu- 
ments — that they do not duly appreciate their 
merits. I should not feel myself warranted in so 
doing. But I will say that, if they do, Col. John- 
son will be our next Vice President. 

That man who can contemplate the misery and 
degradation that have ever resulted to the many 
from a union of the ecclesiastical and secular pow- 
ers, must be a stranger to every patriotic feeling ; 
callous to every noble impulse, and dumb to all the 
emotions of gratitude, not to admire and revere, 
honor and support, the man who had the honesty 
and moral heroism to risk his popularity, by stem- 
ming the current of public prejudice ; by exciting 

7 



66 APPENDIX. 

the bigot's wrath, and provoking the vigilant and 
eternal hostility of a powerful sect, whose influence 
is felt and whose toils are spread from Maine to 
Florida, and from the Oregon to the Atlantic. 
But the same determined spirit, the same sacred 
love of country, that prompted Col. Johnson to face 
that country's open foe on the battle field, urged 
him with equal ardor to grapple with its secret 
enemies in the Senate chamber. Shall he go un- 
rewarded? # * # 

He who considers the influence which those re- 
ports are calculated to exert over the destinies of 
this Republic as trifling, or of small importance, 
is but little acquainted with the history of the past, 
and consequently but ill qualified to judge of the 
future. 

Col. Johnson had been instructed by the philo- 
sopher and faithful historian, as well as by the 
teachings of his own mighty mind, that " human 
nature is never so debased as when superstitious 
ignorance is armed with power." 

He knew full well, that wherever the ecclesias- 
tical and secular powers were leagued together, 
the fountains of justice were polluted — that the 
streams of righteousness were choked up, and that 
the eternal principles of truth and equity were ba- 
nished the land — that the people were degraded — 
their understanings enthralled, and all their ener- 
gies crushed and exhausted. He knew full well 
that all the evils combined, which convulse the na- 
tural world, were not so fatal to the prosperity of 



APPENDIX. 



67 



a nation as religious intolerance ; for even after 
pestilence has slain its thousands — the earthquake 
swallowed up its victims, and the desolating whirl- 
wind swept the land — yet may a new and better 
world spring from the desolation ; but when reli- 
gion grasps the sword, and superstition rears her 
haggard form, hope has fled forever. Do you call 
for the evidence ? The histories of Spain, of Italy, 
and of Portugal, are before you. They tell you 
these states were powerful once. What are they 
now % " Infants in the cradle, after ages of nonen- 
tity." * # * * * 

Col. Johnson had not only a regard to the politi- 
cal, but also to the religious welfare of his country, 
when he drafted these Reports. He had been in- 
structed, by the history of the past, that in propor- 
tion as a sect becomes powerful, from whatever 
cause, it retrogades in piety, and advances in cor- 
ruption and ambition. He was aware that the 
Christian religion no longer partook of the charac- 
ter of its founder, after the civil arm was wielded 
in its behalf. After it was taken into keeping by 
Constantine, that royal cut-throat — that anointed 
parricide — that baptized murderer — from that time 
to the present, with but few intervals, it has been 
wielded as a political engine, prostrating the li- 
berties and paralizing the energies of the nations. 
We hazard but little in predicting that the Re- 
ports of the Kentucky statesman, calculated as 
they are to guard us from a like curse, will survive 
and nourish — will be read and admired — honored 



68 APPENDIX. 

and revered, by the freemen of America, when 
the edicts of kings and of emperors, and the creeds 
of councils, shall have been swept from the memo- 
ry of man. # # # * 

Gentlemen, we behold in Col. Richard M. 
Johnson a man of Roman stamp in Rome's best 
age. We behold in him not only the tried and in- 
vincible soldier — the dauntless asserter of the rights 
of conscience, but also the enlightened philanthro- 
pist and righteous legislator, as is abundantly evi- 
dent from his recent and masterly Report on the 
subject of Imprisonment for Debt. * * 
Ever actuated by the principles of patriotism and 
honor, as well as by the feelings of humanity, this 
great and good man is constantly toiling, by day 
and by night, in season and out of season, for his 
country's good and for his country's glory. And, 
gentlemen, that country will not only prove itself 
ungrateful to its benefactor, but unfaithful to itself, 
yea, reckless of its own best interests, if it neglects 
to reward services so important, merit so transcend- 
ant. 



22dCoNGRESS, ) r> tvt mi ^ u r> 

. . „ ' > Rep. No. 194. < Ho. of Reps. 

l5t Session. ) ( 



ABOLISH IMPRISONMENT FOR DEBT. 



January 17, 1832. 



Mr. R. M. Johnson, from the Select Committee 
to which the subject had been referred, made the 
following 

REPORT: 

The Committee, to whom was referred so much of 
the message of the President of the JJnited States, 
as respects Imprisonment for Debt, report: 

That, acting; under a constitution of limited 
powers, delegated by the people of the several 
States, an act of Congress to abolish imprisonment 
for debt, can have effect only in cases belonging 
to the federal courts. The primary and only legi- 
timate object of Government is to secure to each 
individual the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. These cannot be forfeited 
without crime. It is essential to the preservation 
of liberty, that crime should be defined, and its 
punishment determined by law. To protect the 
citizen from acts of tyranny, the constitution se- 
cures, in all cases, to the accused, the right of trial 
by an impartial jury. The violation of this prin- 



70 APPENDIX, 

ciple is the essence of despotism. If insolvency 
is fraud, and if that fraud is a crime which justly 
deprives the insolvent of his liberty, the law should 
define it as such, and fix its punishment. The trial 
should be, like that of other crimes, by an impar- 
tial jury, in the State and district where the crime 
is committed ; and the punishment should be pro- 
nounced by -the court, subject, as in other convic- 
tions, to the pardoning power, in the discretion of 
the Executive. In the punishment of debtors 
all these sacred principles are subverted. The 
citizen is deprived of his liberty, without the accu- 
sation of a crime, without a criminal prosecution, 
and without a jury to decide upon his guilt ; and 
his punishment is submitted to the sole discretion 
of an individual creditor. 

In all the catalogue of human crimes, there is 
none which more imperiously requires definition, 
than that of fraud. To punish a crime which is 
not well defined by law, is always more injurious 
to society, because of the abuse of power to which 
it subjects the accused, than to suffer it with impu- 
nity. Why does not the law define and punish 
ingratitude, a crime which is marked with univers- 
al execration 1 Because of the difficulty of giving 
to it such a precise definition as would separate 
the innocent from the guilty. By omitting to 
punish this vice, we avoid a greater evil. So, in 
abolishing imprisonment for debt, absolutely and 
without condition or reservation, we shall avoid 
an evil infinitely greater than can be obviated by 



APPENDIX. 71 

any restriction. Our constitution denounces pri- 
vileged orders. The warning voice of history, 
bearing, like peals of thunder, the cries of the op- 
pressed from ancient and modern nations, where 
these orders have existed, and still exist, demanded 
this security for the citizens of our own country. 
But to give to the creditor, in any case whatever, 
power over the body of his debtor, is a violation of 
this principle. It subjects the liberty of the great 
mass of our most useful, because most enterprising 
and industrious, citizens, to the caprice, the ven- 
geance, or forbearance, of the wealthy and the more 
fortunate. Why do we reprobate the act which 
crowded so many human beings in the black hole 
of Calcutta, where mortal pestilence was inhaled 
from the infected atmosphere'? Because it was 
an act of cruelty ; and it is the same abhorrence 
that elicits this popular cry, which has become 
almost universal against imprisonment for debt. 

Yet legislators, the majority of whom have 
generally been of the wealthier class, or at least 
free from pecuniary difficulties, have so compli- 
cated the system that it has become involved in a 
labyrinth of mystery ; and to secure its existence 
they have surrounded it with such dark suspicions 
of fraud, that the subject can scarcely be approached 
without embarrassment. Thus, like all other sys- 
tems of despotism, it has imposed on the minds of 
men, with some shadow of plausibility, the idea of 
necessity ; till, by long habit, they have gradually 
become, in some degree, reconciled to the oppres- 



72 APPENDIX. 

sion. The victim is cut off from society ; and be- 
cause he pines in solitude, where his miseries are 
not seen, nor his complaints heard, his case is 
passed over, as an instance of individual misfor- 
tune, for which there is no remedy, and which is 
scarcely worthy of observation. But if all of these 
victims of oppression were presented to our view 
in one congregated mass, with all the train of 
wives, children, and friends, involved in the same 
ruin, they would exhibit a spectacle, at which hu- 
manity would shudder. It was a remark of one 
of the sages of antiquity, that the best government 
is that where an injury to one citizen is resented as 
an injury to the whole. Here, in our own free 
and happy country, many thousands of our fellow- 
citizens are suffering annually the deepest injury. 
Children are deprived of their natural guardians, 
families of their support, and freemen of their 
liberty, by a remnant of barbarism, which requires 
nothing but the voice of legislation to blot it out 
for ever. From the earliest dawn of civilization, 
it has been a subject of the severest censure, and 
of the most unqualified denunciation. 

But history teaches us that men, accustomed to 
bondage, may contract a fondness for the chains 
that bind them. The subjects of monarchs become 
attached to their aristocratic establishments; and 
are hardly persuaded to forego the splendors of 
royalty, for the simplicity of republican govern- 
ment. So in relation to this vestige of despotism 
amongst us; the most obstinate prejudices are en- 



APPENDIX. 73 

listed in its favor, sustained by all the cupidity of 
sordid minds. The injustice and cruelty of the 
system are generally conceded; but the wisest 
heads and purest hearts have found some insur- 
mountable difficulty in devising a remedy, which 
will at once eradicate the evil, and guard against 
imaginary dangers, that the preservation of per- 
sonal liberty must be regarded as hopeless, upon 
any other principle than that of the total and abso- 
lute abolition of imprisonment for debt. For ages 
past, the common rights of humanity have been 
violated upon the pretext that, in some cases, fraud 
may exist, and to such a degree as may justly de- 
prive a citizen of his liberty. The committee are 
aware that such cases may exist ; but can there be 
no other remedy provided than that of submitting 
it to the arbitrary will of the creditor, to punish at 
discretion the innocent and the guilty? Shall 
ninety-nine innocent victims of misfortune be cut 
off from their families and the world, that one 
fraudulent debtor may be punished without trial, 
and without proof of guilt ? It is inconsistent with 
the whole spirit of our institutions, to urge, as ar- 
guments in favor of the system, that creditors are 
seldom vindictive against honest debtors ; or that 
fraudulent debtors are more numerous than cruel 
creditors ; or that public sentiment will correct the 
disposition to act with severity. 

The acts are often the reverse. Creditors are 
often relentless. It is doubtful whether fraud is 
not as common on the part of the creditor, as on 



74 APPENDIX. 

that of the debtor {and cruelty more common than 
either) ; and public sentiment has but little influ- 
ence over an avaricious mind. The system origi- 
nated in cupidity. It is a confirmation of power 
in the few against the many ; the fortunate against 
the unfortunate ; the Patrician against the Pie* 
bian ; and it is doubtful whether that civilized 
community ever existed, which would tolerate 
this system, if the sentiments of all could be known 
and faithfully represented. But we learn, from 
long habit, to endure, and even to advocate, what 
becomes most execrable to us when the fetter is 
broken. So long as a solitary benefit is known 
to result from any established custom, however 
oppressive or absurd in its general tendency, still 
there is a reluctance to change. The Spanish In- 
quisition, now the abhorrence of all enlightened 
minds, was long sustained in many countries, by 
the tyrant's plea of necessity for restraining vice ; 
and its cruelties were long tolerated, upon the 
principle that some solitary benefit might result. 
Even in this country, and to the present day, the 
force of ancient prejudice is so strong that persons 
are found who are fearful for the interest of reli- 
gion, if undefined and unprotected by legislative 
acts ; and, in support of the principle, some in- 
stance may be cited, in which this interference 
may have restrained licentiousness. In the burn- 
ing a thousand heretics, the world may have been 
delivered from one dangerous citizen. In the de- 
struction of a thousand sorcerers, convicted of 



APPENDIX. 75 



witchcraft, one knave may have perished. The 
benefit of clergy, which secured from capital pu- 
nishment, for petty offences, all who could read and 
write, while the more ignorant were doomed to 
death for the same crimes, may have saved some 
useful lives, when a milder and more equitable 
administration of justice would have saved many. 
A despot, clothed with unlimited power, governing 
without law, may have punished some offenders, 
who would have escaped under our republican 
institutions. 

All these cruelties have been legalized ; and 
while bleeding humanity was sinking under the 
burthen of oppression, the few instances of appa- 
rent benefit sustained the whole system of tyranny ; 
and the world became so reconciled to the bondage, 
that every reformation has been effected by vio- 
lence, and toil, and blood. Of a similar character 
is this remaining vestage of barbarity, which 
dooms the victim of misfortune to the culprit's 
destiny. It is sustained upon the same principle. 
In the imprisonment of a hundred debtors, one 
may have deserved the punishment for fraud; and 
in this solitary case of just retribution, the cries of 
the ninety-nine innocent sufferers are unheard or 
unregarded. The obligation of a contract is sa- 
cred. The committee would not recommend a 
measure calculated to impair it. The property of 
the debtor is made liable for its discharge, in all 
well regulated societies, with such reservations as 
are deemed necessary by the sovereign power, 



76 APPENDIX. 

such as giving immediate relief to the wife and 
children, together with such implements as will 
enable the husbandman and mechanic to pursue 
their useful vocations. These reservatons were 
made in the early ages of the Grecian Republics ; 
and the principle has been held sacred by muni- 
cipal law, by common law, by civil law. It is a 
regulation which the prosperity of the common- 
wealth requires, because industry is the life of the 
country. 

A nation may exist without professional men, 
without a monied capital ; but it cannot exist, in a 
civilized state, without agriculturalists and artizans. 
But it is of little avail to reserve their implements 
of labor, and imprison their persons. The State 
sustains a loss, the families are ruined, and the 
creditors are not benefitted. When the effects of 
the debtor are exhausted, and his debts remain un- 
liquidated, the world has been divided in sentiment 
as to the extent of a pecuniary obligation against 
the personal liberty of the debtor. In ancient 
Greece, the power of creditors over the persons of 
their debtors was absolute; and, as in all cases 
where despotic control is tolerated, their rapacity 
was boundless. They compelled the insolvent 
debtors to cultivate their lands like cattle, to per- 
form the service of beasts of burthen, and to trans- 
fer to them their sons and daughters, whom they 
exported as slaves to foreign countries. 

These acts of cruelty were tolerated in Athens 
during her more barbarous state, and in perfect 



APPENDIX. 77 

consonance with the character of a people, who 
could elevate a Draco, and bow to his mandates 
registered in blood. But the wisdom of Solon cor- 
rected the evil. Athens felt the benefit of the re- 
form, and the pen of the historian has recorded the 
name of her lawgiver, as the benefactor of man. 
In ancient Rome, the condition of the unfortunate 
poor was still more abject. The cruelty of the 
Twelve Tables against insolvent debtors, should 
be held up as a beacon of warning to all modern 
nations. After judgment was obtained, thirty days 
of grace were allowed, before a Roman was deli- 
vered into the power of his creditor. After this 
period, he was retained in a private prison, with 
twelve ounces of rice for his daily sustenance. He 
might be bound with a chain of fifteen pounds 
weight ; and his misery was three times exposed 
in the market place, to excite the compassion of 
his friends. At the expiration of sixty days, the 
debt was discharged by the loss of liberty or life. 
The insolvent debtor was either put to death, or 
sold in foreign slavery beyond the Tiber. But if 
several creditors were alike obstinate and unrelent- 
ing, they might legally dismember his body and 
satiate their revenge by this horrid partition. 
Though the refinements of modern criticisms have 
endeavored to divest this ancient cruelty of its hor- 
rors, the faithful Gibbon, who is not remarkable 
for his partiality to the poorer class, preferring 
the liberal sense of antiquity, draws this dark 
picture of the effect of giving the creditor power 

8 



78 APPENDIX. 

over the person of the debtor. No sooner was the 
Roman Empire subverted, than the delusion of 
Roman perfection began to vanish ; and then the 
absurdity and cruelty of this system began to be 
exploded : a system which convulsed Greece and 
Rome, and filled the world with misery; and 
without one redeeming benefit could no longer be 
endured ; and, to the honor of humanity, for about 
one thousand years during the middle ages, im- 
prisonment for debt was generally abolished. 
They seemed to have understood what, in more 
modern times, we are less ready to comprehend — 
that power, in any degree, over the person of the 
debtor, is the same in principle, varying only in 
degree, whether it be to imprison, to enslave, to 
brand, to dismember, or to divide his body. But 
as the lapse of time removed to a great distance 
the cruelties which had been suffered, the cupidity 
of the affluent found means again to introduce 
the system ; but by such slow gradations, that the 
unsuspecting poor were scarcely conscious of the 
change. The history of English jurisprudence 
furnishes the remarkable fact, that, for many cen- 
turies, personal liberty could not be violated for 
debt. Property alone could be taken to satisfy a 
pecuniary demand. It was not until the reign of 
Henry III., in the thirteenth century, that the 
principle of imprisonment for debt was recognized 
in the land of our ancestors, and that was in favor 
of the barons alone ; the nobility against their 
bailiffs, who had received their rents, and had ap- 



APPENDIX. 79 

propriated them to their own use. Here was the 
shadow of a pretext. The great objection to the 
punishment was, that it was inflicted at the pleas- 
ure of the baron without a trial — an evil incident 
to aristocracies, but obnoxious to republics. The 
courts, under the pretext of imputed crime, or con- 
structive violence on the part of the debtor, soon 
began to extend the principle, but without legisla- 
tive sanction. In the eleventh year of the reign 
of Edward L, the immediate successor of Henry, 
the right of imprisoning debtors was extended to 
merchants — Jewish merchants excepted, on ac- 
count of their heterodoxy in religion — and was 
exercised with great severity, This extension 
was an act of policy on the part of the monarch. 
The ascendency obtained by the barons menaced 
the power of the throne ; and, to counteract their 
influence, the merchants, a numerous and wealthy 
class, were selected by the monarch, and invested 
with the same authority over their debtors. But 
England was not yet prepared for the yoke. She 
could endure a hereditary nobility ; she could tole- 
rate a monarchy ; but she could not yet resign her 
unfortunate sons, indiscriminately, to the prison. 
The barons and the merchants had gained the 
power over their victims ; yet more than sixty 
years elapsed, before Parliament dared to venture 
another act, recognizing the principle. During 
this period, imprisonment for debt had, in some de- 
gree, lost its novelty. The incarceration of the 
debtor began to make the impression, that fraud, 



80 APPENDIX. 

and not misfortune, had brought on his catastro- 
phe, and that he was, therefore, unworthy of the 
protection of the law, and too degraded for the so- 
ciety of the world. Parliament then ventured, in 
the reign of Edward III., in the fourteenth century, 
to extend the principle to two other cases — debt 
and detinue. This measure opened the door for 
impositions which were gradually introduced by 
judicial usurpation, and have resulted in the most 
cruel oppression. Parliament, for one hundred 
and fifty years afterwards, did not venture to out- 
rage the sentiments of an injured and indignant 
people, by extending the power to ordinary credit- 
ors. But they had laid the foundation, and an 
irresponsible judiciary reared the superstructure. 
From the twenty-fourth year of the reign of Ed- 
ward III., to the nineteenth of Henry VIII., the 
subject slumbered in Parliament. In the mean 
time, all the ingenuity of the court was employed, 
by the introduction of artificial forms and legal 
fictions, to extend the power of imprisonment for 
debt in cases not provided for by statute. The 
jurisdiction of the court called the King's bench, 
extended to all crimes or disturbances against the 
peace. Under this court of criminal jurisdiction, 
the debtor was arrested by what was called the 
writ of Middlesex, upon a supposed trespass or 
outrage against the peace and dignity of the crown. 
Thus, by a fictitious construction, the person who 
owed his neighbor was supposed to be, what every 
one knew him not to be, a violator of the peace, 



APPENDIX. 81 

and an offender against the dignity of the crown ; 
and while his body was held in custody for this 
crime, he was proceeded against in a civil action, 
for which he was not liable to arrest under statute. 
The jurisdiction of the court of common pleas, ex- 
tended to civil actions arising between individuals 
upon private transactions. To sustain its import- 
ance upon a scale equal with that of its rival, this 
court also adopted its fictions, and extended its 
power upon artificial construction, quite as far be- 
yond its statutory prerogative ; and upon the ficti- 
tious plea of trespass, constituting a legal supposi- 
tion of outrage against the peace of the kingdom, 
authorized the writ of capias, and subsequent 
imprisonment, in cases where a summons only was 
warranted by law. The court of exchequer was 
designed to protect the king's revenue, and had 
no legal jurisdiction, except in cases of debtors to 
the public. The ingenuity of this court found 
means to extend its jurisdiction to all cases of debt 
between individuals, upon the fictitious plea that 
the plaintiff, who instituted the suit, was a debtor to 
the king, and rendered the less able to discharge 
the debt by the default of the defendant. Upon 
this artificial pretext, that the defendant was debtor 
to the king's debtor, the court of exchequer, to se- 
cure the king's revenue, usurped the power of ar- 
raigning and imprisoning debtors of every descrip- 
tion. Thus, these rival courts, each ambitious to 
sustain its relative importance, and extend its ju- 
risdiction, introduced, as legal facts, the most pal- 
8* 



82 APPENDIX. 

pable fictions, and sustained the most absurd 
solicisms as legal syllogisms. 

Where the person of the debtor was, by statute, 
held sacred, the courts devised the means of con- 
struing the demand of a debt into the supposition 
of a crime, for which he was subject to arrest on 
mesne process ; and the evidence of debt, into the 
conviction of a crime against the peace of the 
kingdom, for which he was deprived of his liberty 
at the pleasure of the offended party. These prac- 
tices of the courts obtained by regular gradation. 
Each act of usurpation was a precedent for similar 
outrages, until the system became general, and at 
length received the sanction of Parliament. The 
spirit of avarice finally gained a complete triumph 
over personal liberty. The sacred claims of mis- 
fortune were disregarded ; and, to the iron grasp 
of poverty, were added, the degredation of infamy, 
and the misery of the dungeon. 

Parliament appeared sometimes to relent, and 
made several efforts to correct the abuses; but the 
influence of creditors, and the poAver of the courts, 
were too formidable for Parliament itself; and 
while a vestage of the system remains, the oppres- 
sion will never terminate. The time was, when 
personal liberty in England was so highly valued, 
that before the institution of a suit against an indi- 
vidual, the plantifF was required to give real and 
responsible pledges, to prosecute the suit with ef- 
fect; and if the action proved to be groundless, or 
malicious, he was subjected to damages. But 
ultimately, the courts, without the authority of sta- 



APPENDIX. 83 

tute, broke this common law barrier against op- 
pression, and for real pledges substituted fictitious 
names, as John Doc and Richard Roe ; while, 
upon the mere suggestion or oath of the plantiff, 
the defendant may be arrested and imprisoned, 
before the debt is proven ; unless he can procure 
bail for his appearance. Thus was the whole 
artifice of the learned benches of England, with all 
the authority of the aristocracy, employed for 
centuries to introduce, by the most gradual mea- 
sures, imprisonment for debt, even before a people, 
accustomed to all the abuses of hereditary power, 
could be brought under its control. But when it 
was established, our ancestors, with the whole 
system of British jurisprudence, brought it with 
them to this new world. It has been long endured 
and its miseries have been extensively felt. It is 
this day depriving our country of the industry of 
many of her citizens, and carrying distress into 
their numerous families. But there is evidently 
a spirit of reformation awakened in the public 
mind, and the redeeming voice of the people de- 
mands the change. 

Public sentiment, like the general tendency of 
our laws, is in favor of the unfortunate debtor. It 
speaks for liberty, and gives it an estimate above 
the value of gold. If there is a country on earth, 
in which personal liberty has a claim to the pro- 
tection of the law, paramount to every other claim, 
it is found on these western shores. But while 
the body, under any circumstances, is liable to ar- 



84 APPENDIX. 

rest on mense process, or after judgment is obtain- 
ed, whether to coerce a surrender of property, or 
to punish for real insolvency, there is no security 
for liberty. Till the destinies of fortune shall be 
subject to human control, no citizen, however 
meritorious, is certain to close his days without 
being immured in the walls of a prison. If stolen 
goods are secreted, the oath of suspicion is neces- 
sary to procure a search warrant ; and then the 
person suspected is free from arrest, till the pro- 
perty is found in his possession. But in case of 
debt, the person is liable to be arrested and to be 
held in custody, even under the mildest insolvent 
laws, till the debtor shall, on oath, make a surren- 
der of his effects. The plea of necessary coercion 
furnishes a poor apology. Man, held in confine- 
ment one hour, by the lawful authority of his 
fellow-citizens, is degraded in the estimation of 
society, and is liable to lose respect for himself. 
The spirit of freedom, which achieved, and which 
still sustains our independence, is broken ; and he 
often sinks into a state of ruinous despondency — 
or is urged on to acts of desperation. The only 
safe course is, to destroy the capias ad satisfacien- 
dum, the writ which takes the body upon a judg- 
ment, and as experience may point the necessity 
of other measures to secure the surrender of the 
property, time will perfect them. The power of 
the State Legislatures is ample, and they will not 
fail to provide the remedy ; and the committee be- 
lieve it will be most wise to leave that power with 



APPENDIX. 85 

the States. Whatever may be the theory of legis- 
lation, the true character of a system is demontrated 
by its effects. If it renders society more free and 
happy, it should be retained : but if it augments 
the sufferings of the community, without producing 
benefits which will more than countervail the evils, 
it ought to be abandoned. The spurious origin 
of this system is not the leading point on which 
the committee would dwell — nor even the gene- 
rous sympathies which its victims excite. Its 
ruinous consequences to society, without benefit 
even to the creditor, show the necessity of its 
abolition. 

The power of the creditor is generally exerted 
under feelings of irritation, and to satiate a spirit of 
revenge. The American citizen, who has bled 
for his country, or whose penury has resulted from 
his father's sacrifices in the cause of independence, 
is reduced to a condition in which he cannot meet, 
with punctuality, the claims against him. What 
is the consequence? From that moment his liberty 
is forfeited to the discretion of his creditor. His 
patriotisn, his integrity of character, avail him no- 
thing. If he is permitted, in his daily exercise, to 
pass the bounds of a prison wall, it is by the for- 
bearance of another. He is liable to be held in 
degrading custody, even under the mildest laws of 
insolvency, till he shall have taken the oath pre- 
scribed; and then, like the culprit who has received 
punishment for his crime, he is discharged from 
prison. This is the liberty which Americans 



86 APPENDIX. 

enjoy, under the system of imprisonment for debt. 
Even the illustrious Jefferson, that patriarch of 
liberty, and the virtuous and patriotic Monroe, 
whose lives were devoted to their country in its 
darkest hours, enjoyed their freedom, during the 
shades of retirement, not by the protection of the 
law, but by the forbearance of their creditors. A 
citizen cannot, by contract, consign himself to bond- 
age. He may fix his signet to the indenture, 
that purports to bind him, but the law will break 
the fetter. A man may forfeit his liberty by the 
commission of crime ; the safety of society may re- 
quire that he shall be locked out from the world ; 
but the debtor is not convicted of a crime : his li- 
berty is not dangerous to society ; yet, by technical 
implication, he may be consigned to prison. 

The slave, while he toils for his master, contri- 
butes to the nation's wealth, and to the benefit of so- 
ciety. The resources of a nation consist principal- 
ly in the industry of its citizens ; and labour, by 
whatever hands performed, is a contribution to the 
public weal. But he who pines a day in prison, 
drags out that portion of his life in useless indo- 
lence; starving in misery, or living upon another's 
labor, while society is deprived of his own. The 
miseries of the debtor's prison present a picture of 
wretchedness which fancy could scarcely draw. 
These miseries are not confined to the prisoner's 
cell. They extend, in all their horror, to the hum- 
ble dwelling of his family. The broken-hearted 
wife, sourrounded with helpless, suffering children, 



APPENDIX. 87 

weeping for the return of an affectionate father, 
innocent and ignorant of the fell destiny which 
dooms them to a state of untimely orphanage, is 
driven to despondency, and somtimes to acts of in- 
famy. Nor is the evil obviated by the argument 
that the mildness of the insolvent laws furnishe 
an easy release from confinement. The moment 
a citizen enters a prison, at the command of his 
fellow-citizen, his mind is humbled; and the prin- 
ciple is the same, whatever may be the duration, 
whether it can deprive him of his liberty for a day, 
a month, a year, or three score years and ten. Not- 
withstanding all the boasting of the mildness of our 
insolvent laws, our jails are crowded with debtors 
— thousands are annually imprisoned for debt in 
these United States. These facts amply demon- 
strate that the existing insolvent laws do not fur- 
nish a remedy for the evil. It must be eradicated 
by an entire and total abolition. 

In the courts of the United States, no security 
can be demanded against groundless or malicious 
actions, except the legal costs of suit. But by ge- 
neral practice under the laws, the simple affidavit of 
the plaintiff that the defendant is indebted to him, 
is sufficient to consign the defendant to prison, un- 
less some responsible person will befriend him by 
becoming his bail. He is not required to state that 
the obligation was incurred by false pretences, nor 
that the defendant was suspected of an intention to 
secret his property, or to withdraw his person, or 
to entertain any fraudulent design. Nothing is 



88 APPENDIX. 

required but the plantifF's oath of debt, to place 
the liberty of the defendant beyond the protection 
of law, and subject him to the favor of an individu- 
al to save him from prison. It is difficult to ascer- 
tain any fixed principle upon which imprisonment 
for debt is advocated. It is regarded by some as 
a punishment for a crime ; by others, a mode of co- 
ercion ; by some, a fulfilment of an implied con- 
tract ; by others, again, a matter of public policy. 
If it is a crime, the object of punishment should be 
the reformation of the offender, and the prevention 
of future offences. An offence is against society ; 
the guilt of the offender should be ascertained by 
a jury ; the penalty should be fixed by law, accord- 
ing to the degree of guilt, and pronounced by the 
court without consulting the pleasure of an indi- 
vidual. (But in imprisonment for debt, there is 
no reformation.) Society is not disturbed by a 
criminal act. No guilt is imputed to the debtor. 
The law furnishes no penalty. The court pro- 
nounces no sentence. There are no grades of of- 
fence. All is left to the discretion of an individual, 
and the law operates indiscriminately upon the frau- 
dulent and unfortunate. If it be a means of coer- 
cion, it is inefficacious. It connot compel the ho- 
nest man to pay what he has no means of paying. 
It places him beyond the possibility of procuring 
those means. The dishonest man will devise a 
method of placing his property beyond the reach of 
his creditors, by preparing himself in anticipation 
of the result. He will triumph in the impotence 



APPENDIX. 89 

of the laws. The innocent are always degraded, 
and often ruined, while the guilty escape the pun- 
ishment which their crimes deserve. It is not the 
fulfilment of a contract. No fair construction, even 
under all the fictions of law, can justify the conclu- 
sion that a debtor agrees to forfeit his personal li- 
berty to the will of his creditor. The debtor, as a 
citizen and free man, is in all respects equal to his 
creditor. No contract Could deprive him of person- 
al independance ; and in contracting a debt, he has 
no intention to compromit his freedom. A contract 
upon such a principal, would be void, both in law 
and in equity. In contracting a debt there is a mu- 
tual agreement between the parties, in whch both 
are interested. If a loan, it is for usury ; if a sale, 
it is for profit; if an act of friendship, gratitude is the 
safest pledge for its return, when circumstances 
will permit. But in all cases, the ability of the debt- 
or, from the property which he holds, or may ac- 
quire, is the only proper means of payment ; and it 
is the only legitimate resource which the creditor 
can honorably and lawfully anticipate. If his ob- 
ject is to obtain power over the liberty of the debtor, 
it is dark, designing, dishonorable in the extreme, 
and utterly unworthy the sanction of law. If his 
dependence is upon the friends of the debtor, by 
exciting their commisseration, through cruelty, it 
deserves public reprobation. Lord Mansfield just- 
ly observes, if any near relation is induced to pay 
the debt for the insolvent to keep him out of prison, 
it is taking an unfair advantage. No credit is de- 

9 



90 APPENDIX. 

sirable in a free country, predicated upon the im- 
prisonment of the debtor, and it ought not to be 
granted upon such considerations. 

In a country without a uniform bankrupt law, 
the cruelty of the system is beyond the endurance 
of freemen. As a matter of policy, the committee 
cannot discover either the wisdom or the justice of 
the system. To oppress the poor may well enough 
consist with the policy of despots ; but to an Ameri- 
can citizen, whose birthright is liberty, it must be 
odious. The wealth and prosperity of a nation, 
the comforts of society, and the happiness of fami- 
lies, depend upon active industry, combined with 
well directed enterprise. Our laws and institutions 
recognize no classes. Farmers, mechanics, mer- 
chants, professional men, and the capitalist, are all 
peers. The revolutions in propertjr, and distinc- 
tions resulting from industry, virtue, and talent 
alone, are as certain as the revolutions of the sea- 
sons. They cannot be perpetuated in one family, 
nor excluded from another. The poor may be- 
come w r ealthy, and the rich poor. 

The prospect of success invigorates the hand of 
industry, and gives them impetus to the noblest 
enteprise. To these exertions, every encourage- 
ment should be given ; but when the cloud of 
misfortune lowers, to consign its victim to the pri- 
son, is to blast his future prospects, and to fix upon 
his family the mark of degradation. To maintain 
that confidence which is necessary to a fair and 
reasonable credit, effectual remedies should be 



APPENDIX. 91 

provided against the property of the debtor, always 
reserving from execution such articles as are ne- 
cessary for the pursuit of his calling ; but that he 
may retain the spirit of useful enterprise, for the 
benefit of both his family and the community, those 
reservations should be carefully guarded, and the 
freedom of his person always secured. It cannot 
be denied that great calamities, both public and 
private, have arisen from too much credit — seldom 
or never, from too little ; and it is equally certain 
that the excess of credit as frequently proceeds 
from him who gives, as from him who receives it. 
If imprisonment for debt shall be totally abolish- 
ed, the parties will understand the proper legiti- 
mate resource for the fulfilment of a contract. It 
will then rest upon its proper basis. The person 
granting credit will confide in the ability of the 
debtor to meet the claim, or he will require satis- 
factory pledges. Whatever censure may attach to 
the abuse of credit, it is but just to divide it between 
them. It is frequently as injurious to the one as 
to the other; and without the voluntary consent of 
both, it cannot exist. In the present state of socie- 
ty, the injury of the system may be seen and felt 
in a limited degree, and persons not accustomed to 
visit the abodes of misery, will scarcely be con- 
vinced of its dangerous tendency. But as popu- 
lation becomes more dense, the difficulty of procur- 
ing the comforts of life must be increased. Then, 
if the power of the creditor over the personal li- 
berty of his debtor shall remain, it will be exercis- 



92 APPENDIX. 

ed with unrelenting severity. Though our re- 
publican forms may be preserved, their essence 
may be destroyed. The country will be divided 
into two great classes, creditors and debtors ; be- 
tween whom the most obstinate hostilities will 
exist ; and, as in Greece and Rome, society may be 
convulsed, confidence destroyed, and liberty en- 
dangered. 

We should legislate with a view to posterity ; 
that, with our fair inheritance, we may transmit to 
them a harmonious system, calculated to sustain 
their rights, and perpetuate the blessings of freedom. 
While imprisonment for debt is sanctioned the 
threats of the creditor are a source of perpetual 
distress to the dependant, friendless debtor, holding 
his liberty by sufferance alone. Temptations to 
oppression are constantly in view. The means of 
injustice are always at hand ; and even helpless 
females are not exempted from the barbarous 
practice. In a land of liberty, enjoying in all 
other respects the freest and happiest government 
with which the world was ever blessed, it is a mat- 
ter of astonishment that this cruel custom, so ano- 
i .lous to all our institutions, inflicting so much 
n ?ery upon society, should have been so long 
endured. It is at variance with the settled cha- 
racter of our population. Whenever objects of 
charity present themselves, all of our sympathies 
are called into action. There is scarcely a hamlet 
in our country, where benevolent societies do not 
exist — often extending their munificence to fami- 



APPENDIX. 



93 



lies deprived of their support by this oppressive 
system. We have not only expended our treasure 
to enlighten the sons of the forest, but we have 
sought out the victims of misfortune in foreign 
regions. The isles of the Pacific, the burning 
climes of Africa, the children of wretchedness in 
Europe and in Asia, even the land of Palestine, 
have enjoyed the fruits of American benevolence, 
obtained by voluntary contribution, while the cries 
of the unfortunate debtor, among us, are unheard 
and unrequited. Public sentiment demands his 
release, but avarice pleads the cause of oppression, 
and prejudice rivets the chain. 

The committee ask leave to report a bill. 

The following extract, taken from the Report of 
the Visiters and Governors of the Jail of Bal- 
timore county, and which is appended to the 
Report, is the result of one county in Maryland, 
and under mild and humane insolvent laws. 

EXTRACT. 

" It appears that during the year, ending on the 
26th of November 1831, 959 of our fellow-citizens 
have been deprived of their liberty, for this cause 
(imprisonment for debt), more than half of them for 
debts under $10, and only thirty-four of the whole 
number for debts exceeding $100. More than 
half have been discharged from prison, by taking 
the benefit of the insolvent laws, or by the creditor 
declining to pay maintainance money; and the 



94 APPENDIX. 

records of the prison present only eighty-one as 
having been discharged by paying their debts. 
The expense of boarding these debtors is $1,430 
41 cents, and the amount of debts paid in jail, $466 
6 cents." 

" The inference we draw from this statement, 
is, that little money is recovered by imprisonment 
for debt, and that any advantages which may pos- 
sibly result from the practice, are greatly over- 
balanced by the loss which the community suffers 
in being deprived of the services of its members ; 
amounting, during the past year, to 7657 days, 
which would have been appropriated to productive 
labor, in paying for their support, while imprison- 
ed, and in the baneful effects which imprisonment 
is calculated to produce on the individuals who 
are its subjects." 

Again " number of debtors for 1 dollar, and 

less, 53 

For more than 1, and less than 5, 306 

more than 5, and less than 10, 219 
more than 10, and less than 20, 179 
more than 20, and less than 100, 168 
more than 100, 34 



959 



COL. JOHNSON'S REPORTS, 

IN THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, ON 
THE SUNDAY MAIL QUESTION. 



FIRST REPORT. 



In the Senate of the United States, January 19, 1829, Mr. 
JOHNSON, of Kentucky, made the following Report : 

The Committee to whom was referred the several Petitions 
on the subject of Mails, on the Sabbath, or first day of the 
week, report — 

That some respite is required from the ordinary vocations 
of life, is an established principle, sanctioned by the usages 
of all nations, whether Christian or Pagan. One day in 
seven has also been determined upon as the proportion of 
time ; and, in conformity with the wishes of a great majority 
of the citizens of this country, the first day of the week, com- 
monly called Sunday, has been set apart to that object. The 
principle has received the sanction of the national legisla- 
ture, so far as to admit a suspension of all public business 
on that day, except in cases of absolute necessity, or of great 
public utility. This principle the committee would not wish 
to disturb. If kept within its legitimate sphere of action, no 
injury can result from its observance. It should, however, 
be kept in mind, that the proper object of government is to 
protect all persons in the enjoyment of their religious as well 
as civil rights; and not to determine for any, whether they 
shall esteem one day above another, or esteem all days alike 
holy. 

We are aware that a variety of sentiment exists among 
the good citizens of this nation, on the subject of the sabbath 
day, and our government is designed for the protection of 
one, as much as of another. The Jews, who, in this coun- 
try, are as free as Christians, and entitled to the same pro- 
tection from the laws, derive their obligation to keep the 
sabbath day from the fourth commandment of the decalogue, 
and, in conformity with that injunction, pay religious ho- 
mage to the seventh day of the week, which we call Satur- 



96 APPENDIX. 

day. One denomination of Christians among us, justly 
celebrated for their piety, and certainly as good citizens as 
any other class, agree with the Jews in the moral obligation 
of the sabbath, and observe the same day. There are also 
many Christians among us, who derive not their obligations 
to observe the sabbath from the decalogue, but regard the 
Jewish sabbath as abrogated. From the example of the 
apostles of Christ, they have chosen the first day of the 
week, instead of that set apart in the decalogue, for their re- 
ligious devotions. These have generally regarded the ob- 
servance of the day as a devotional exercise, and would not 
more readily enforce it upon others than they would enforce 
secret prayer or devout meitations. Urging the fact that 
neither their Lord, nor his disciples, though often censured 
by their accusers for a violation of the sabbath, ever en- 
joined its observance, they regard it as a subject on which 
every person should be fully persuaded in his own mind, 
and not coerce others to act on his persuasion. Many Chris- 
tians, again, differ from these professing to derive their obli- 
gation to observe the sabbath from the fourth commandment 
of the Jewish decalogue, and bring the example of the apos- 
tles, who appear to have held their public meetings for wor- 
ship on the first day of the week, as authority for so far 
changing the decalogue, as to substitute that day for the 
seventh. The Jewish government was a theocracy, which 
enforced religious observances ; and though the committee 
would hope that no portion of the citizens of our country 
would willingly introduce a system of religious coercion in 
our civil institutions, the example of odier nations should 
admonish us to watch carefully against its earliest indica- 
tions. 

With these different religious views, the committee are of 
opinion that congress cannot interfere. It is not the legiti- 
mate province of the legislature to determine what religion 
is true, or what false. Our government is a civil, not a reli- 
gious institution. Our constitution recognizes, in every 
person, the right to choose his own religion, and to enjoy it 
freely, without molestation. Whatever may be the religious 
sentiments of citizens, and however variant, they are alike 
entitled to protection from the government, so long as they 
do not invade the rights of others. 

The transportation of the mail on the first day of the week, 
it is believed, does not interfere with the rights of conscience. 
The petitioners for its discontinuance, appear to be actuated 
by a religious zeal, which may be commendable, if confined 
to its proper sphere ; but they assume a position better suited 
to an ecclesiastical, than to a civil institution. They appear, 
in many instances, to lay it down as an axiom, that the 



APPENDIX. 97 

practice is a violation of the law of God. Should congress, 
in their legislative capacity, adopt the sentiment, it would 
establish the principle that the legislature is a proper tribun- 
al to determine what are the laws of God. 

It would involve a legislative decision in a religious con- 
ti*oversy ; and, on a point in which good citizens may 
honestly differ in opinion, without disturbing the peace of 
society, or endangering its liberties. If this principle is 
once introduced, it will be impossible to define its bounds. 
Among all the religious persecutions with which almost 
every page of modern history is stained, no victim ever suf- 
fered, but for the violation of what government denominated 
the law of God. To prevent a similar train of evils in this 
country, the constitution has wisely withheld from our go- 
vernment the power of defining the divine law. It is a right 
reserved to each citizen, and while he respects the equal 
rights of others, he cannot be held amenable to any human 
tribunal for his conclusions. 

Extensive religious combinations, to effect a political ob- 
ject, are, in the opinion of the committee, always dangerous. 
This first effort of the kind, calls for the establishment of a 
principle, which, in the opinion of the committee, would lay 
the foundation for dangerous innovations upon the spirit of 
the constitution and upon the religious rights of the citizens. 
If admitted, it may be justly apprehended that the future 
measures of government will be strongly marked, if not 
eventually controlled, by the same influence All religious 
despotism commences by combination and influence ; and, 
when that influence begins to operate upon the political in- 
stitutions of a country, the civil power soon bends under it; 
and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful 
warning of the consequences. 

Under the present regulations of the post office depart- 
ment, the rights of conscience are not invaded. Every agent 
enters voluntarily, and, it is presumed, conscientiously, into 
the discharge of his duties, without intermeddling with the 
conscience of another. Post offices are so regulated, as that 
but a small proportion of the fi day of the week is \ 
quired to be occupied in official business. In the transport- 
ation of the mail, on that day, no one agent is employed 
many hours. Religious persons enter into the business 
without violating their own conscience, or imposing any re- 
straints upon others. Passengers in the mail stages are 
free to rest during the first day of the week, or to pursue 
their journeys at their own pleasure. While the mail is 
transported on Saturday, the Jew and the Sabbatarian may 
abstain from any agency in carrying it from conscientious 
scruples. While it is transported on the first day of the 



98 APPENDIX. 

week, another class may abstain from the same religious 
scruples. The obligation of government is the same to both 
these classes ; and the committee can discover no principle 
on which the claims of one should be more respected than 
those of the other, unless it should be admitted that the con- 
sciences of the minority are less sacred than those of the 
majority. 

It is the opinion of the committee, that the subject should 
be regarded simply as a question of expediency, irrespective 
of its religious bearing. In this light, it has, hitherto, been 
considered. Congress have never legislated upon the sub- 
ject. It rests, as it ever has done, in the legal discretion of 
the postmaster general, under the repeated refusals of Con- 
gress to discontinue the sabbath mails. His knowledge and 
judgment, in all the concerns of that department, will not 
be questioned. His immense labors and assiduity have re- 
sulted in the highest improvement of every branch of his 
department. It is practised only on the great leading mail 
routes and such others as are necessary to maintain their 
connexion. To prevent this, would, in the opinion of the 
committee, be productive of immense injury, both in its 
commercial, political, and in its moral bearings. 

The various departments of governmet require, frequently, 
in peace, always in war, the speediest intercourse with the 
remotest parts of the country; and one important object of 
the mail establishment is to furnish the greatest and most 
economical facilities for such intercourse. The delay of the 
mails one day in seven, would require the imployment of 
special expresses, at great expense, and sometimes with 
great uncertainty. 

The commercial, manufacturing, and agricultural in- 
terests of our country are so intimately connected, as to 
require a constant and most expeditious correspondence be- 
tween all seaports, and between them and the most interior 
settlements. The delay of the mails during the Sunday, 
would give occasion to the employment of private expresses, 
to such an amount that probably ten riders would be em- 
ployed where one mail stage is now running on that day ; 
thus diverting the revenue of that department into another 
channel, and sinking the establishment into a state of pusil- 
lanimity, incompatible with the dignity of the government 
of which it is a department. 

Passengers in the mail stages, if the mails are not per- 
mitted to proceed on Sunday, will be expected to spend that 
day at a tavern upon the road, generally under circum- 
stances not friendly to devotion, and at an expense which 
many are but poorly able to encounter. To obviate these 
difficulties, many will employ extra carriages for their con* 



APPENDIX. 99 

Veyance, and become beavers of correspondence, as more 
expeditious than the mail. The stage proprietors will 
themselves often furnish the travellers with those means of 
conveyance; so that the effect will ultimately be only to stop 
the mail, while the vehicle, which conveys it, will continue, 
and its passengers become the special messengers for con- 
veying a considerable proportion of what would, otherwise, 
constitute the contents of the mail. 

Nor can the committee discover where the system could 
consistently end. If the observance of holydays becomes 
incorporated in our institutions, shall we not forbid the 
movement of an army ; prohibit an assault in time of war; 
and lay an injunction upon our naval officers to lie in the 
wind upon the ocean on that day ? Consistency would seem 
to require it. JNor is it certain that we should stop here. 
If the principle is once established, that religion, or religious 
observances, shall be interwoven with our legislative acts, 
we must pursue it to its ultimatum. We shall, if consistent, 
provide for the erection of edifices for the worship of the 
Creator, and for the support of Chtistian ministers, if we 
believe such measures will promote the interests of Chris- 
tianity. It is the settled conviction of the committee, that 
the only method of avoiding these consequences, with their 
attendant train of evils, is to adhere strictly to the spirit of 
the constitution, which regards the general government in 
no other light than that of a civil institution, wholly destitute 
of religious authority. 

What other nations call religious toleration, we call reli- 
gious rights. They are not exercised in virtue of govern- 
mental indulgence, but as rights, of which government can- 
not deprive any portion of her citizens, however small. 
Despotic power may invade those rights, but justice still 
confirms them. Let the national legislature once perform 
an act which involves the decision of a religious controversy, 
and it will have passed its legitimate bounds. The prece- 
dent will then be established, and the foundation laid, for 
that usurpation of divine prerogative in this country, which 
has been the desolating scourge to the fairest portions of the 
world. Our constitution recognizes no other power than 
that of persuasion, for enforcing religious observances. Let 
the professors of Christianity recommend their religion by 
deeds of benevolence — by Christian meekness — by lives of 
temperance and holiness. Let them combine their efforts to 
instruct the ignorant — to relieve the widow and the orphan 
— to promulgate to the world the gospel of the Saviour, re- 
commending its precepts by their habitual example: go- 
vernment will find its legitimate object in protecting them. 
It cannot oppose them, and they will not need its aid. 



100 ArPENDIX. 

Their moral influence will do infinitely more to advance 
the true interests of religion, than any measure which they 
may call on congress to enact. 

The petitioners do not complain of any infringement upon 
their own rights. They enjoy all that Christians ought to 
ask at the hand of any government — protection from molest- 
ation in the exercise of their religious sentiments 

Resolved, That the committee be discharged from the 
further consideration of the subject. 



SECOND REPORT. 

In the House of Representatives of the United States, 
March 4, 1830, Mr. JOHNSON, of Kentucky, made the 
following Report. 

The Committe on Post Offices and Post Roads, to whom 
the Memorials were referred for prohibiting the trans- 
portation of the Mails, and the opening of Post Offices. 
on Sundays, report — 

That the memorialists regard the first day of the week as 
a day set apart by the Creator for religious exercises ; and 
consider the ttansportation of the mail, and the opening of 
the post offices, on that day, the violation of a religious duty, 
and call for a suppression of the practice. Others, by coun- 
ter memorials, are known to entertain a different sentiment, 
believing that no one day of the week is holier than another. 
Others, holding the universality and immutability of the 
Jewish decalogue, believe in the sanctity of the seventh day 
of the week as a day of religious devotion ; and by their me- 
morial now before the committee, they also request that it 
may be set apart for religious purposes. Each has hitherto 
been left to the exercise of his own opinion ; and it has been 
regarded as the proper business of government to protect all, 
and determine for none. But the attempt is now made to 
bring about a greater uniformity, at least, in practice ; and, 
as argument has failed, the government has been called 
upon to interpose its authority to settle the controversy. 

Congress acta^under a constitution of delegated and limit- 
ed powers. The committee look in vain to that instrument 
for a delegation of power authorizing this body to inquire 
and determine what part of time, or whether any, has been 
set apart by the Almighty for religious exercises. On the 
contrary, among the few prohibitions which it contains, is 
one that prohibits a religious test; and another which de- 
clares that congress shall pass no law respecting an esta- 



APPENDIX. 101 

blishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise there- 
of. The committee might here rest the argument, upon the 
ground that the question referred to themj does not come 
within the cognizance of congress ; but the perseverance 
and zeal with which the memorialists pursue their object, 
seems to require a further elucidation of the subject. And, 
as the opposers of Sunday mails disclaim all intention to 
unite church and state, the committee do not feel disposed to 
impugn their motives ; and whatever may be advanced in 
opposition to the measure, will arise from the fears enter- 
tained of its fatal tendency to the peace and happiness of 
the nation. The catastrophe of other nations, furnished the 
framers of the constitution a beacon of awful warning, and 
they have evinced the greatest possible'care in guarding 
against the same evil. 

The law, as it now exists, makes no distinction as to the 
days of the week, but it is imperative that the post masters 
shall attend at all reasonable hours, in every day, to perform 
the duties of their offices ; and the post master general has 
given his instructions to all post masters, that, at post 
offices, where the mail arrives on Sunday, the office is to be 
kept open one hour, or more, after the arrival and assorting 
the mail ; but in case that would interfere with the hours of 
public worship, the office is to be kept open for one hour 
after the usual time of dissolving the meeting. This liberal 
construction of the law does not satisfy the memorialists. 
But the committee believe that there is no just ground of 
complaint, unless it be conceded that they have controlling 
power over the consciences of others. If congress shall, by 
the authority of law, sanction the measure recommended, it 
would constitute a legislative decision of a religious con- 
troversy, in which even Christians themselves are at issue. 
However suited such a decision may be to an eccleasiastical 
council, it is incompatible with a republican legislature, 
which is purely for political, and not religious purposes. 

In our individual character, we all entertain opinions, 
and pursue a corresponding practice, upon the subject of 
religion. However diversified these may be, we all har- 
monize as citizens, while each is willing that the other 
shall enjoy the same liberty which he claims for himself. 
But in our representive character, our individual character 
is lost. The individual acts for himself; the representative, 
for his constituents. He is chosen to rep resent their politi- 
cal, and not their religious views — to guard the rights of 
man; not to restrict the rights of conscience. Despots may 
regard their subjects as their property, and usurp the divine 
prerogative of prescribing their religious faith. But the 
history of the world furnishes the melancholy demons tra- 

10 



102 APPENDIX. 

tion that the disposition of one man to coerce the religious 
homage of another, springs from an unchastened ambition, 
rather than a sincere devotion to any religion. The prin- 
ciples of our government do not recognize in the majority, 
any authority over the minority, except in matters which 
regard the conduct of man to his fellow man. A Jewish 
monarch, by grasping the holy censer, lost both his sceptre 
and his freedom ; a destiny as little to be envied, may be 
the lot of the American people, who hold the sovereignty of 
power, if they, in the person of their representatives, shall 
attempt to unite, in the remotest degree, church and state. 

From the earliest period of time, religious teachers have 
attained great ascendency over the minds of the people ; and 
in every nation, ancient or modern, whether Pagan, Ma- 
hometan, or Christian, have succeeded in the incorporation 
of their religious tenets with the political institutions of 
their country. The Persian idols, the Grecian oracles, the 
Roman auguries, and the modern priesthood of Europe, have 
all, in their turn, been the subject of popular adulation, and 
the agents of political deception. If the measures recom- 
mended should be adopted, it would be difficult for human 
sagacity to foresee how rapid would be the succession, or 
how numerous the train of measures which might follow, 
involving the dearest rights of all — the rights of conscience. 
It is, perhaps, fortunate for our country that the proposi- 
tion should have been made at this early period, while the 
spirit of the revolution yet exists in full vigor. Religious 
zeal enlists the strongest prejudices of the human mind: 
and, when misdirected, excites the worst passions of our 
nature, under the delusive pretext of doing God service. 
Nothing so infuriates the heart to deeds of rapine and blood ; 
nothing is so incessant in its toils ; so persevering in its de- 
termination ; so appalling in its course; or so dangerous in 
its consequences. The equality of rights secured by the 
constitution, may bid defiance to mere political tyrants : but 
the robe of sanctity too often glitters to deceive. The con- 
stitution regards the conscience of the Jew as sacred as that 
of the Christian; and gives no more authority to adopt a 
measure affecting the conscience of a solitary individual, 
than that of a whole community. That representative who 
would violate this principle, would lose his delegated cha- 
racter, and forfeit the confidence of his constituents. If 
congress shall declare the first day of the week holy, it will 
not convince the Jew nor the Sabbatarian. It will dissatisfy 
both; and, consequently, convert neither. Human power 
may extort vain sacrifices ; but deity alone can command 
the affections of the heart. It must be recollected that in 
the earliest settlement of this country, the spirit of persecu- 



APPENDIX. 103 

tion which drove the pilgrims from their native home, was 
brought with them to their new habitations; and that some 
Christians were scourged, and others put to death, for no 
other crime than dissenting from the dogmas of their rulers. 

With these facts before us, it must be a subject of deep 
regret that a question should be brought before congress, 
which involves the dearest privileges of the constitution, and 
even by those who enjoy its choicest blessings. We should 
all recollect that Cataline, a professed patriot, was a traitor 
to Rome; Arnold, a professed whig, was a traitor to Ame- 
rica; and Judas, a professed disciple, was a traitor to his 
divine master. 

With the exception of the United States, the whole human 
race, consisting, it is supposed, of eight hundred millions of 
rational beings, is in religious bondage; and, in reviewing 
the scenes of persecution which history every where pre- 
sents, unless the committee could believe that the cries of the 
burning victim, and the flames by which he is consumed, 
bear to heaven a grateful incense, the conclusion is inevita- 
ble that the line cannot be too strongly drawn between 
church and state. If a solemn act of legislation shall, in one 
point, define the law of God, or point out to the citizen one 
religious duty, it may, with equal propriety, proceed to de- 
fine every part of divine revelation ; and enforce every reli- 
gious obligation, even to the forms and ceremonies of wor- 
ship ; the endowment of the church, and the support of the 
clergy. _ _ _ 

It was with a kiss that Judas betrayed his divine master, 
and we should all be admonished, — no matter what our faith 
may be, that the rights of conscience cannot be so success- 
fully assailed, as under the pretext of holiness. The Chris- 
tian religion made its way into the world in opposition to 
all human governments. Banishment, tortures, and death, 
were inflicted in vain to stop its progress. But many of its 
professors, as soon as clothed with political power, lost the 
meek spirit which their creed inculcates, and began to in- 
flict on other religions, and on dissenting sects of their own 
religion, persecutions more aggravated than those which 
their own apostles had endured. The ten persecutions of 
Pagan emperors, were exceeded in atrocity by the massa- 
cres and murders perpetrated by Christian hands; and in 
vain shall we examine the records of imperial tyranny for an 
engine of cruelty equal to the holy inquisition. Every re- 
ligious sect, however meek in its origin, commenced ths 
work of persecution as soon as it acquired political power. 
The framers of the constitution recognized the eternal prin- 
ciple, that man's relation with his God is above human le- 
gislation, and his rights of conscience unalienable. Rea- 



104 APPENDIX. 

soning was not necessary to establish this truth ; we are 
conscious of it in our own bosoms. It is this consciousness 
which, in defiance of human laws, has sustained so many 
martyrs in tortures and in flames. They felt that their duty 
to God was superior to human enactments, and that man 
could exercise no authority over their consciences ; it is an 
inborn principle which nothing can eradicate. 

The bigot, in the pride of his authority, may lose sight 
of it — but strip him of his power ; prescribe a faith to him 
which his conscience rejects ; threaten him in turn with the 
dungeon and the faggot; and the spirit which God had im- 
planted in him, rises up in rebellion and defies you. Did 
the primitive Christians ask that government should recog- 
nize and observe their religious institutions 1 All they asked 
was toleration ; all they complained of, was persecution. 
What did the protestants of Germany, or the Hugenots of 
France, ask of their catholic superiors 1 Toleration. What 
do the persecuted catholics of Ireland ask of their oppressors 1 
Toleration. 

Do all men in this country enjoy every religious right 
which martyrs and saints ever asked 1 Whence, then, the 
voice of complaint 1 Who is it, that, in full enjoyment of 
every principle which human laws can secure, wishes to 
wrest a portion of these principles from his neighbor'? Do 
the petitioners allege that they cannot conscientiously parti- 
cipate in the profits of the mail contracts and post offices, 
because the mail is carried on Sunday 1 If this be their 
motive, then it is worldly gain which stimulates to action. 
andjnot virtue or religion. Do they complain that men, less 
conscientious in relation to the sabbath, obtain advantages 
over them, by receiving their letters and attending to their 
contents % Still their motive is worldly and selfish. But, 
if their motive be to induce congress to sanction, by law, 
their religious opinions and observances, then their efforts 
are to be resisted, as in their tendency fatal, both to religious 
and political freedom. Why have the petitioners confined 
their prayer to the mails 1 Why have they not requested to 
suspend all its executive functions on that day "? Why do they 
not require us to enact that our ships shall not sail 1 that our 
armies shall not march 1 that officers of justice shall not seize 
the suspected, to guard the convicted 1 They seem to forget 
that government is as neeessary on Sunday as on any other 
day of the week. The spirit of evil does not rest on that day. 
It is the government, ever active in its functions, which enables 
us all, even the petitioners, to worship in our churches in 
peace. 

Our government furnishes very few blessings like our 
mails. They bear from the centre of our republic to its dis- 



APPENDIX. 105 

tant extremes, the acts of our legislative bodies, the decisions 
of the judiciary, and the orders of the executive. Their 
speed is often essential to the defence of the country, the 
suppression of crime, and the dearest interests of the people. 
Were they suppressed one day of the week, their absence 
must be often supplied by public expresses ; and besides, 
while the mail bags might rest, the mail coaches would pur- 
sue their journey with the passengers. The mail bears, 
from one extreme of the Union to the other, letters of rela- 
tives and friends, preserving a communion of heart between 
those far separated, and increasing the most pure and refined 
pleasures of our existence; also, the letters of commercial men 
convey the state of the markets, prevent ruinous speculations, 
and promote general, as well as individual, interest ; they bear 
innumerable religious letters, newspapers, magazines, and 
tracts, which reach almost every house throughout this wide 
republic. Is the conveyance of these a violation of the sabbath 1 
The advance of the human race in intelligence, in virtue, and 
religion itself, depends in part upon the speed with whicn a 
knowledge of the past is disseminated. Withont an inter- 
change between one country and another, between different 
sections of the same country, every improvement in moral or 
political science, and the arts of life, would be confined to the 
neighborhood where it originated. The more rapid and the 
more frequent this interchange, the more rapid will be the 
march of intellect, and the progress of improvement. The 
mail is the chief means by which intellectual light irradiates 
to the extremes of the republic. Stop it one day in seven and 
you retard one seventh the advancement of our country. So 
far from stopping the mail on Sunday, the committee would 
recommend the use of all reasonable means to give it a greater 
expedition and a greater extension. What would be the ele- 
vation of our country, if every new conception could be made 
to strike every mind in the Union at the same time'? It is not 
the distance of a province or state from the seat of government, 
which endangers its separation ; but it is the difficulty and 
unfrequency of intercourse between them. Our mails reach 
Missouri and Arkansas in less time than they reached Ken- 
tucky and Ohio in the infancy ot their settlements ; and now, 
when there are thre-i millions of people extending a thousand 
miles west of the Allegany, we hear less of discontent, then 
when there were a few thousand scattered along their west- 
ern base. 

To stop the mails one day in seven would be to thrust the 
whole western country, and other distant parts of the repub- 
lic, one day's journey from the seat of government. But 
were it expedient to put an end to the transmission of letters « 
and newspapers on Sunday, because it violates the law of 



106 APPENDIX. 

God, have not the petitioners begun wrong in their efforts 1 
If the arm of government be necessary to compel men to res- 
pect and obey the laws of God, do not the state governments 
possess infinitely more power in this respect 1 Let the peti- 
tioners turn to them, and see if they can induce the passage of 
laws to respect the observance of the sabbath : for, if it be sin- 
ful for the mail to carry letters on Sunday; it must be equally 
sinful for individuals to write, carry, receive, or read them. It 
would seem to require that these acts should be made penal, 
to complete the system. Travelling on business or recreation, 
except to and from church ; all printing, carrying, receiving, 
and reading of newspapers ; all conversations and social inter- 
course, except upon religious subjects, must necessarily be 
punished to suppress the evil. Would it not also follow, as 
an inevitable consequence, that every man, woman, and child, 
should be compelled to attend meeting 1 and, as only one sect, 
in the opinion of some, can be deemed orthodox, must it not 
be determined, by law, which that is, and compel all to hear 
those teachers, and contribut to their support 7 ? If minor 
punishments would restrain the Jew, or the Sabbatarian, or 
the infidel, who believes Saturday to be the subbath. or 
disbelieves the whole, would not the same require that we 
should resort to imprisonment, punishment, the rack, and the 
faggot, to force men to violate their own consciences, or compel 
them to listen to doctrines which they abhor 1 When the state 
governments shall have yielded to these measures, it will be 
time enough for congress to declare that the rattling of the 
mail coaches shall no longer break the silence of this despo- 
tism. It is a duty of this government to aiford to all — to the 
Jew or Gentile, Pagan or Christian, the protection and advan- 
tages of our benignant institutions, on Sunday, as well as 
every other day of the week. Although this government will 
not convert itself into an ecclesiastical tribunal, it will practice 
upon the maxim laid down by the founder of Christianity — 
that it is lawful to do good on the sabbath day. If the 
Almighty has set apart the first day of the week as time which 
man is bound to keep holy, and devote exclusively to his 
worship, would it not be more congenial to the precepts of 
Christians, to appeal exclusively to the great lawgiver of the 
universe to aid them in making men better, in correcting their 
practices by purifying their hearts 1 Government will pro- 
tect them in their efforts. When they shall have so instruct- 
ed the public mind, and awakened the consciences of indivi- 
duals, as to make them believe that it is a violation of God's 
law to carry the mail, open post offices, or receive letters, on 
Sunday, the evil of which they complain will cease of itself, 
without any exertion of the strong arm of civil power. When 
man undertakes to be God's avenger, he becomes a demon. 



APPENDIX. 107 

Driven by the frenzy of a religious zeal, he looses every gentle 
feeling ; forgets the most sacred precepts of his creed ; and 
becomes ferocious and unrelenting. 

Our fathers did not wait to be oppressed, when the mother 
country asserted and exercised an unconstitutional power 
over them. To have acquiesced in the tax of three pence 
upon a pound of tea, would have led the way to the most cruel 
exactions; they took a bold stand against the principle, and 
liberty and independence were the result. The petitioners 
have not requested congress to suppress Sunday mails upon 
the ground of political expediency, but because they violate the 
sanctity of the first day of the week. 

This being the fact, and the petitioners having indignantly 
disclaimed even the wish to unite politics and religion, may 
not the committee reasonably cherish the hope that they will 
feel reconciled to its decision, in the case ; especially, as it is 
also a fact, that the counter memorials, equally respectable, 
oppose the interference of congress, upon the ground that it 
would be legislating upon a religious subject, and therefore 
unconstitutional. 

Resolved, That the committee be discharged from the 
further consideration of the subject. 







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